Lawmaker: Move pharmacy school to Oahu

As the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy prepares to begin construction of its new permanent building on the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus, one Big Island legislator is asking whether the school should be here at all.

House Resolution 100, introduced Friday by state Rep. Richard Creagan, D-Naalehu, requests that the University of Hawaii study the feasibility of uprooting the nascent pharmacy program and moving it to Kakaako in Honolulu.

In return, the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources would be moved from Manoa to Hilo.

In explaining the reasoning behind the move, the resolution states “some observers have suggested that certain developments, such as locating the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the university’s Hilo campus, may not be aligned with the principal mission of that campus.”

The resolution also says the decision to locate the college in Hilo might have been the result of a “political decision and that the college would be best located adjacent to the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako, which would enhance the function of both institutions and result in better student training and in better patient care …”

In a Tuesday interview, College of Pharmacy founding Dean John Pezzuto called the idea of moving the school “naive,” considering the amount of effort, money and time spent putting down roots in Hilo.

“The notion of basically horse trading one college for another is, to be frank … It doesn’t seem like it was well thought out.” he said.

“We’ve spent the last nine years building infrastructure, working with accreditors and various sites. … And it’s not just a question of moving Pharmacy. It would be devastating to Hilo and the citizens of the Big Island. We’ve proven our success already, and I see no logical merit in the idea at this point in time.”

Pezzuto recalled that 12 years ago, when he was working as dean at Purdue University, he was approached with the question of whether the proposed college of pharmacy would be a better fit in Hilo or Honolulu.

“At the time, I had no notion of coming here,” he said. “I said it could be created at either place, and that it would just have a different character depending on where you put it. If someone comes in with ambition and will, it could be successful in either place. And they decided to put it here. And it was way after that they approached me to be the dean.”

Now that the college is fully accredited and construction is set to begin this summer on its $33 million building, Pezzuto said the school is a proven entity, and its location in Hilo is an important part of its success.

“If it had been built in Honolulu, I think Pharmacy would have been somewhat weaker,” he said. “It’s like being an only child. You have to develop strengths you wouldn’t have needed to develop if you were part of a bigger family. … The decision was done, and the college has become a more integral part of the system than it would have been if located on Oahu. It’s become a part of the fiber of the community.”

Creagan explained Tuesday that the genesis of the resolution came from his looking at ways to bolster the financially troubled University of Hawaii Cancer Center, which has been operating in the red to the tune of about $9.5 million a year and could run out of reserves in the next three years.

Pairing the pharmacy school with the cancer center on the Manoa campus would be beneficial to both institutions, he said, and would ultimately make more sense.

“If the pharmacy school moved there, it would meld extremely well with the Cancer Center. They could help them develop medicines that might be used by the cancer school. And it would be a good opportunity for the pharmacy school, giving access to more resources,” he said.

Meanwhile, moving the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to Hilo is a subject that has long been discussed, he said, and is something that seems a natural move, considering the Big Island’s ongoing transition from an economy centered around the sugar industry.

Having formerly taken undergraduate agriculture courses in Hilo, Creagan said he is well aware of the boost moving the CTAHR to Hilo could have for farming on Hawaii Island.

“It’s something that’s been proposed for decades,” he said. “… We have lots of land and water resources. And we need to train young farmers. If this move could be accomplished, that’s what would happen.”

Creagan said his introduction of the nonbinding resolution is simply a call for the idea to be discussed, and he doesn’t expect UH-Hilo administrators to readily embrace it.

“Look, they fought hard to keep (the College of Pharmacy) here, to get the funding for the building. I helped them get the building,” he said. “I knew UH-Hilo wouldn’t want to let it go without something in return, and that they may not want to let it go at all. … I have no desire to make people do something they don’t want to do. I’m just asking the president of the university to have a discussion with the stakeholders.”

UH-Hilo administrators have long credited the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye with helping to ensure the College of Pharmacy was located on the Big Island. In honor of that effort, the school was named after the senator in February 2013, about two months after his death.

“Building a high-quality college of pharmacy on Hawaii Island was part of Sen. Inouye’s vision to encourage better health care throughout the Pacific region and throughout the neighbor islands of Hawaii,” UH-Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney said at the time. “His vision was that each neighbor island would harbor a center of excellence, that every island should have its own specialty. The specialty for Hawaii Island envisioned by Sen. Inouye was our own College of Pharmacy.”

Pezzuto said Tuesday that Inouye’s legacy would be tarnished if the college was moved.

“It would be a tragedy that the senator put so much into this, and now we have people saying things like they want to take everybody’s vision and effort and work, and take a proven thing that’s so successful, and destruct it,” he said.

A call to Maria Gallo, dean of UH-Manoa’s CTHAR, was not returned as of press time Tuesday.

Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.