A growing student body looking for a campus

The Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii at Hilo has more than 360 students enrolled in its various programs, most of them seeking a PharmD, which is the doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences.

The school now occupies classrooms in temporary facilities on the outskirts of campus, administration offices in a county building and research labs seven miles from Hilo.

The first class of 84 students graduated in 2011, and officials report that 95 percent of them have a job that required the PharmD degree. From the Class of 2012, 73 percent have been hired at that level, too; figures from last year’s class are not yet compiled. A timeline:

2004: UH-Hilo officials, pitching a plan to start a pharmacy college program, ask the UH Board of Regents for $20.4 million in startup funds; state subsidies, totaling $7 million, would end after five years. The construction costs, then estimated at $25 million, would be raised from federal and private sources, they said.

2006: The College of Pharmacy is founded.

2007: The first class enrolls.

2008: The college is awarded candidate accreditation status, which is reaffirmed for 2009 and 2010.

2010: Gov. Linda Lingle releases $5.5 million for planning and design of a permanent building; UH-Hilo officials now anticipate the cost at $66 million.

2011: The college earns accreditation with its first graduating class.

2013: The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education finds the college compliant in all but one of 30 categories: facilities. Officials consider the construction project crucial to the school’s survival. A proposal for a facility, designed to cost $38 million with some elements to be completed through private fundraising, is passed by the state Senate but stalls in the House.

2014: Gov. Neil Abercrombie includes a request for $28 million in state-backed bonds to finance a scaled-down version of the project; the Legislature is vetting the proposal.