Kapiolani Community College's Hospitality and Tourism Department achieves national CAHM accreditation

Kapiʻolani Community College
Contact:
Ron Umehira, (808) 734-9233
Kapiolani Community College
Kristen Bonilla, (808) 956-5039
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Sep 24, 2007

HONOLULU - The Hospitality and Tourism (HOST) Department at Kapiʻolani Community College was recently granted accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Hospitality Management Programs (CAHM), and is one of only twelve two-year colleges in the nation to receive the CAHM recognition. The Commission granted the HOST Department with the maximum seven-year accreditation status effective summer 2007 — summer 2014.

"Out of hundreds of two-year colleges that offer hotel/restaurant and travel/tourism programs, the HOST Department was notified that it achieved accreditation from the CAHM Commission after an eight-month self-study process," said HOST Department Chair Ron Umehira, who oversaw the department's accreditation report.

"We are very proud to achieve this recognition and will work very hard to maintain the standards and also to continually improve the quality of our programs, services, and facilities to better serve our students," said Umehira.

CAHM accreditation is a status granted to an educational program that has been found to meet or exceed stated standards of educational quality in terms of its mission and objectives, evaluation and planning, administration and governance, curriculum, faculty and staff, student services and activities, and resources.

To achieve this accreditation, a total of 49 faculty, staff, students and industry partners researched and wrote a very comprehensive self-study report of Kapiʻolani CC‘s hospitality and tourism education programs. The self-study report was then evaluated by a group of three commission and industry officials, who also visited the college in May 2007 and evaluated the department‘s laboratories and classrooms, and conducted numerous interviews with the faculty, administrators, students, and industry executives. The team‘s findings resulted in a recommendation report to the CAHM Commission that was discussed and reviewed along with the HOST program‘s self-study report at the annual CAHM Commission meeting in July 2007.

CAHM consists of 13 commissioners, including hospitality educators, executives from the lodging, food, service and other allied hospitality members, and the members of the public at large, and reviews, assesses and evaluates two-year hospitality programs at community and junior colleges in the United States and throughout the world.

For more information about the HOST Department at Kapiʻolani Community College, visit www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu.

For more information, visit: http://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu