When it comes to making Eastern Michigan better, everyone's
got ideas — and that's what drives the Academic Quality
Improvement Program (AQIP).
On June 30, EMU's Continuous Improvement Operating Council
considered an unprecedented seven AQIP proposals and passed
its recommendations along to the Strategic Operations Council
(SOC). The SOC will decide which projects proceed as part
of this specific accreditation program.
AQIP projects are the crème de la crème
of continuous improvement projects. They're sponsored by
a university vice president, carried out by interdepartmental
teams in a 6-to-24-month time span, and are designed to
address concerns in one of nine areas related to the university's
mission and operations.
To maintain its accreditation with the Higher Learning
Commission, EMU must have at least three of these projects
going at any given time. However, John Dugger, AQIP's action
project management/training contact, said EMU's Office
of Continuous Improvement and Planning actually prefers
to have more.
In 2005 — the first year EMU participated in the AQIP
program — a
group of EMU employees who'd gone through AQIP training
identified the four areas that became action projects.
The second time around, vice presidents were asked to solicit
ideas from within their divisions and just three fully
formed proposals came back.
This time, the request went out campuswide, via e-mail,
and Dugger received more than 40 replies. Some were from
people willing to work on AQIP teams; others were general
ideas offered up in hopes someone would run with them.
Seven were complete proposals and six others said they'd
have their ideas in proposal form by the time the next
AQIP cycle rolls around in six months.
"Considering the time of year — a lot of people are
not on campus, and a lot who are on campus are busy working
on budgets — I think this is phenomenal," said
Dugger, who stokes a passion for improving the whole by
empowering its parts. "The number of positive responses
we got in e-mails was far more than I would have expected."
The latest round of proposed projects includes ideas that
would:
- Create a data retention policy.
- Develop a model that will describe what employees need
to know to help EMU achieve its goals and mission.
- Support participation in the Higher Learning Commission's
Academy for Assessment of Student Learning.
- Create a map and tree walk as a campus orientation tool.
- Improve departments' effectiveness in getting endowed
scholarship dollars awarded.
- Expose all teacher education students to foreign language
and different cultural experiences.
- Increase the number of students who participate in international
activities.
EMU also has a brand new systems portfolio — another requirement
of accreditation through AQIP — that went into effect at
the end of May. It involves using data and tracking to
identify problems, make improvements and evaluate whether
or not the improvements accomplish the job before making
policy changes. The systems portfolio itself, which will
be updated annually, is available online at http://www.emich.edu/aqip/systemsportfolio.html.
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Dugger |
"It's (systems portfolio) kind of a common-sense
approach, but it's not something we were doing," before
EMU became an AQIP member, Dugger said.
Launched in July 1999, AQIP attempts to infuse the principles
and benefits of continuous improvement into the culture
of colleges and universities by providing an alternative
process through which an already-accredited institution
can maintain its accreditation from the NCA. EMU received
its most recent 10-year reaccreditation from NCA in 2000.
Past and continuing projects have led to departments using
new methods to gauge and improve customer satisfaction.
Other projects have produced better courses and more relevant
texts. Ongoing projects are working to make career services
more effective and build continuous improvement into physical
plant operations. A recycling initiative is waiting for
a vice president-level sponsor. A student empowerment initiative
is under way that will evaluate EMU's effectiveness in
teaching skills like time management, planning and personal
responsibility. After this evaluation is complete, the
team assigned to this project will determine which skills
have the most impact on students and student retention.
Even if a project doesn't receive AQIP approval, it's
still highly likely to catch on as a continuous improvement
project, Dugger said. The idea is to get people thinking
about improvement, and to give the right people the tools
to make it happen.
"We think this is one of the most important things we
do on this campus right now," Dugger said. "...It's effective
because, when you put together a team, you select people
who know the processes. They're not management; they're
the people who are doing it every day. You take people
who know the process and you give them some tools that
work, and let them assume responsibility for that process.
It's empowering. It promotes empowerment and it links the
right people."
For those who did not submit a potential AQIP project
by the June 23 deadline, they can submit a project during
the next AQIP cycle, in six months. Anyone interested in
submitting a project idea should check out the guidelines
at http://www.emich.edu/aqip/Actionproject.html
