2004 ACPE Report Praises the College for a “commitment to excellence in all areas”

For three intensely busy days in early April, the College hosted a team of on-site investigators from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the independent agency responsible for accrediting the nation’s professional degree-granting pharmacy institutions.

Two months after the visit, the ACPE report arrived. The results: The College had passed ACPE’s rigorous requirements with flying colors.

“We expected to pass ACPE muster, and did,” explains Dean Frank J. Ascione, “but accreditation is something we never take for granted. Every seven years, we’re called upon to demonstrate our competence in educating PharmD students. It’s a process akin to an IRS audit: thorough, demanding, anxiety-producing. We’re always glad when it’s over. Our approach was very proactive as we viewed this as part of our strategic planning process. We identified some key issues that we wanted the accreditation team to respond to, and were very up-front about the challenges facing us. We are delighted that we received a favorable evaluation.”

The ACPE’s overall assessment, spelled out in the ACPE Evaluation Report, was that the College “truly demonstrates a commitment to excellence in all areas,” and is “recognized as a leader nationally and internationally in professional, graduate, and post-doctoral education, in the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge through sponsored research and scholarship, and in the development and implementation of innovations in pharmacy practice that have had significant impact on the quality of patient care.”

The ACPE report commends the College for its stewardship of financial resources, and goes on to state that the “success of the College’s Doctor of Pharmacy graduates on the standardized licensing examination (NAPLEX) and their accomplishments as alumni attest to the quality of the professional program. It is particularly notable that the College has been able to progress and maintain quality in all areas despite the resource challenges it has faced in multiple areas.”

The one area of weakness identified by the ACPE report was the College’s lack of a “long-term plan to address physical facility needs."

“Finding a solution to this problem will be a top priority for me as dean,” Ascione states.