Message From The President Regarding ACPE Preaccreditation

August 13, 2020
We learned the disappointing news this week that our CHSU College of Pharmacy’s preaccreditation status was withdrawn by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Though we’ve been tracking toward accreditation since 2013, the ACPE Board determined that our Doctor of Pharmacy program was not sufficiently compliant in 3 of the 25 standards areas and that, according to policy, more time could not be granted.
Our College of Pharmacy will remain open as our current students in the graduating classes of 2021 to 2023 complete their pharmacy education at CHSU, allowing them to take their licensing exams and become pharmacists.
We will NOT be able to admit our 44 students in the incoming College of Pharmacy 2024 class this fall, however. Our Dean of Pharmacy, Dr. Mark Okamoto, and his Admissions team are rapidly helping these admitted students transition and find other California pharmacy schools, which have already begun interviewing these students this week.
We had expected a more positive outcome with our pharmacy accreditation and the fact that our students are impacted to this degree is extremely unfortunate, especially the students who we are not able to matriculate at CHSU this year.
Our board of trustees voted last night to pursue the formal Doctor of Pharmacy program accreditation process with ACPE again. Our goal is to work towards admitting new pharmacy students as soon as fall 2022. Our founders and University leadership are dedicated to our mission to educate health care professionals for the Valley’s growing needs.
We recognize this is disheartening news to campus, preceptors, and partners who have worked hard to help build this program for our students. This is a setback, but temporary. Our campus community is resilient and dedicated to serving the Valley’s health care education needs.
The ACPE action does not apply to our new College of Osteopathic Medicine and the 79 medical students that matriculated at CHSU in July. We have already begun making admission offers for our second cohort of medical students who will matriculate in July 2021.
We will continue to update our website about our plans for our College of Pharmacy.
Sincerely,
Florence T. Dunn
President
California Health Sciences University