A Cal State San Bernardino program created to address the Inland Empire’s physician shortage has been scrapped.
Its long-awaited Master of Science in Physician Assistant program failed to receive the provisional accreditation needed to launch as planned this fall, school officials said. The first group of about 40 students was supposed to start the 27-month-long program in mid-August, according to university officials.
Instead, officials said the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant in August denied the program’s accreditation, which is required for it to operate. Officials from the accrediting agency could not be reached this week.
Cal State San Bernardino’s now-defunct program is no longer enrolling students or accepting applications, a brief online announcement states.
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A student walks Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, past the Yasuda Center for Extended Learning at Cal State San Bernardino. It was to have housed the university’s new physician assistant program but the program’s accreditation was not granted. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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A student walks Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, past the Yasuda Center for Extended Learning at Cal State San Bernardino. It was to have housed the university’s new physician assistant program but the program’s accreditation was not granted. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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“CSUSB is disheartened to share this news after years of preparation and unwavering support from elected leaders, healthcare partners, and our local community,” the announcement said. “Although accreditation was not granted, the mission and vision that inspired this program continue to guide the university.”
Cal State San Bernardino, which itself is fully accredited, “remains committed to creating innovative solutions that expand the healthcare workforce and strengthen the well-being of the Inland Empire.”
The message did not say if the university would again seek accreditation for the program or to revive it.
The Southern California News Group on Thursday, Sept. 25, filed a California Public Records Act request seeking the accreditation report.
Alan Llavore, a university spokesperson, issued a Thursday, Sept. 18, statement saying that the university tried to address the panel’s concerns, but was “ultimately unable to meet the criteria necessary to secure accreditation-provisional status.”
“The loss of the MSPA program is deeply felt. As the only Physician Assistant program that would have existed within the CSU system, it represented a significant opportunity to expand access to high-quality healthcare education — particularly in the underserved communities of the Inland Empire,” the statement continued. “We share in the disappointment of our prospective students and the dedicated faculty who were prepared to guide them.”
The university declined to comment further beyond the statement, Llavore said.
Reports show a severe shortage of doctors in California, especially in the Inland Empire, which has a population of more than 4.6 million. The 2025 California Physicians Almanac, produced by the California Health Care Foundation, shows the Inland area is one of four regions in the state that does not meet the recommended supply of primary care physicians.
The program’s first group of students were informed of the failed accreditation in August, just before classes were to begin.
In a letter received by students and posted on Reddit, Program Director Sonia Otte wrote that the accreditation was denied based on eight citations and that the university “did not provide its program with sufficient personnel to operate.” Otte, who disagreed with the denial but was “bound to honor the decision,” previously created a similar physician assistant master’s program at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, according to Cal State San Bernardino.
Under a doctor’s supervision, a physician assistant can diagnose and treat patients. They help doctors by seeing patients and doing procedures, depending on state requirements. U.S. programs are 2 to 2 1/2 years long and far shorter than the training needed to become a doctor.
In Southern California, at least 12 institutions have accredited programs, with some still provisional or in development, according to the PA Education Association and the California Academy of Physician Associates. Cal State San Bernardino’s would have been the only one in the 23-school Cal State system and the first at an Inland public university. Cal State Monterey Bay’s program lost its accreditation and shut down in 2024.
Aside from regular classes and labs, the master’s program would have offered hands-on clinical experience, focused on serving underserved areas and the “huge needs” of the Inland Empire, officials said.
The goal was to keep new physician assistants — who were supposed to finish training in 2027 — serving the Inland area. Preference would have gone to diverse applicants who were raised or spent their childhoods in the Inland Empire, or another medically underserved area, had local clinical experience, or were first-generation students, officials said. The goal was to expand the group of students gradually from 40 to 50.
One remnant of the program is still visible on the Cal State San Bernardino campus.
A state-of-the-art facility — in a remodeled building formerly known as the Yasuda Center for Extended Learning — was to have hosted the new master’s program, school officials said. It has new classrooms, patient labs, student areas and a clinical exam center and was “built to equip future PAs with the skills to lead in community-based care, behavioral health, and telemedicine,” school officials said in an April social media post.
Program funding came from grants and initiatives and several public officials helped secure dollars, university officials said in an April 2024 news release announcing the program’s establishment. Former state Sen. Richard Roth, of Riverside, obtained more than $16 million for the program. In addition, the project received $10 million in state funding and $2 million from federal grants secured by Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.
In the university’s statement, issued by spokesperson Llavore, officials said they appreciate elected officials’ support, and are “actively working with partners to determine whether funds can be deployed to support other health-related programs at CSUSB, ensuring they continue to benefit our region and campus community.”
Meanwhile, several Cal State employees who lost their jobs when the program ended and members of the California Faculty Association union’s San Bernardino chapter are demanding accountability.
Union leaders said in a news release that “mismanagement and transparency failures lead to a costly accreditation denial.” The plan had “organizational deficiencies” and an “insufficient number of qualified faculty,” the union’s release states.
It alleged that faculty members had “repeatedly warned” Provost A. Rafik Mohamed and Otte “that their decisions placed the program’s accreditation at risk.”
“Ironically, this very deficiency was cited by Dr. Otte herself in her letter explaining the denial of provisional accreditation — an outcome rooted in her own failure of leadership and accountability,” the release states.
Union members estimated that $10 million to $17 million in state dollars were spent to remodel the Yasuda Center, plus the $2 million in federal grants. They said it was a cost with “severe consequences,” and “raises broader questions about administrative priorities.”
“They were trying to do this very quickly,” said the union’s chapter president Tiffany Jones, a history professor at the university, who alleged that officials didn’t understand the accreditation process. “They said they didn’t have enough faculty members nor sufficient personnel to operate the program, but they actually did. It was just how they were hired.”
“To us, this seemed like a complete waste of state funds just poured down the drain, due to something that could have been avoided if administrators had just listened,” Jones said. “It’s quite shocking they could just get that money and nothing come from it.”
Jones called the program “an incredible opportunity” to improve health care in the Inland Empire. “Forty of the best” students were picked, she said, with some leaving jobs, giving up housing or moving across the country to study in San Bernardino.
“This was one way to address the desperate need of medical physician assistants, who could potentially offer more medical care to our local community. “
Union leaders are demanding the university release the accreditation report and present a plan on what will happen to students who tried to enter the program. They also want students to be refunded for their application fees, Jones said. And they want to know why the university apparently does not plan to reapply for accreditation so the program could at some point launch.
Llavore, the spokesperson, said students’ admissions deposits have been refunded.
Rosslynn Byous, a former professor who would have been an instructor in the program, alleged that the university failed to follow state and federal policies and misclassified faculty. She said officials ignored state and federal policies when the accrediting agency visited, and that the program — which she called a “cash cow” for the university — took three to five years to establish.
“There is nothing altruistic,” Byous said. “Over $15 million spent, a state-of-the-art building is empty, CSUSB administration lacks transparency and is trying to hush the outcome. They failed the community, the students and the program faculty due to deceptive practices.”
