With plans in the works to construct a classroom building, the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) has received a two-year extension of its accreditation.
The Delmarva Daily Times reports that Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, which has urged the university to build a facility for the pharmacy school, granted the extension through June 2019.
Full accreditation was in question after the Council cited the university's lack of progress in planning a physical facility on its Princess Anne, Md., campus to house the pharmacy program.
"Thus, to sustain accreditation, UMES must show progress on the design and construction of the new School of Pharmacy facility," according to a University System of Maryland summary of testimony regarding the 2017 budget year.
The accrediting agency says the university should house all School of Pharmacy programs under one roof, rather than scatter them at five structures on campus, as they are now. The Council has described the scattered facilities as "less than adequate."
In response, The University System of Maryland Board of Regents decided to place the capital project at the top of its list of requests for state funding,
The state has committed more than $6.5 million over two years to pay for the planning and design of a new building.
"How quickly construction might start," the university says in a news release, "hinges on at least two factors—getting endorsements from the University System of Maryland regents and the state's higher education commission for the building's design and construction costs, and then convincing the Maryland legislature to fund it."
University leaders are hopeful construction could begin in fall 2019.
