Only selected pharmacy students were invited to meet with an accreditation team Wednesday at the College of Pharmacy.
Mike Gallegos, a fourth-year pharmacy student, was asked to leave at the beginning of the meeting.
Gallegos is suing UNM and John Pieper, the dean of the college, for breach of contract because he said he was wrongly held back in his classes.
The attrition rate - the rate at which students are held back a semester or dismissed - and the quality of facilities are two reasons the department's accreditation is under review.
Peter Vlasses, executive director of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, asked Gallegos to leave the meeting because he is in litigation with the University.
"Are you going to bring in the vice squad to take me out?" Gallegos asked before he left the room.
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Gallegos said it wasn't fair for only a small number of students to be allowed to address the council.
"They want to hide the whole accreditation issue," he said. "So they just brought in a little group to say positive things."
According the college's Web site, the council requires "pharmacy schools to provide an opportunity for pharmacy students to provide comments and/or complaints about the school's adherence to ACPE's standards."
After Gallegos left the room, Vlasses asked about 15 students who attended the meeting who they were and if they had permission to be there.
Students allowed to attend the meeting were asked by the dean personally or selected randomly, Vlasses said.
Edwin Porras, who was dismissed from the college last December, tried to sit in on the meeting. He was asked to leave when he admitted he was not invited.
"I kind of expected it," he said, adding that the meeting should have been an open forum.
This reporter and News Editor Rivkela Brodsky were also asked to leave the meeting. Vlasses explained no one could be there without permission from the dean.
Donald Godwin, interim associate dean for student affairs, said admittance to the meeting was not allowed for anyone other than invited guests.
He referred all further questions to Sam Giammo, spokesman for Health Sciences Center.
Giammo said the closed-meeting policy was not the college's but the accreditation council's.
ACPE could not be contacted to comment on whether accreditation meetings are open to the public.
Two students who attended the meeting declined to comment even when offered anonymity.
The accreditation council put the college on probation two years ago for failing to meet some standards.
The board was in town to assess the progress made since then, said Don Williams, a member of the council's board of directors. One part of the process is meeting with students and hearing their concerns, which was the reason for the roundtable Wednesday.
