October 2012 Another source of benchmarking is through vendors providing nationally normed surveys. BHC chooses a survey to meet its specific need in part because of the access to normed benchmark data. For example, Noel Levitz SSI and SENSE provide BHC with student engagement comparative benchmarks and the PACE survey provides workforce engagement comparative data to other community colleges. BHC recognizes the value of considering best practices from non-education sources. BHC is actively involved in two organizations that share their pursuit of continuous quality improvement. This includes the CQIN, which is a membership-based organization, comprised primarily of two-year educational institutions throughout the United States and committed to quality improvement. Through involvement with CQIN, BHC has been exposed to several Baldrige award-winning organizations and has benchmarked against the relevant components of their processes. The second is the NCCBP, which obtains and shares comparative data from peer institutions nationwide. Finally, BHC continues its quest for excellence through the application of structures and practices that require a disciplined approach to continuous improvement such as AQIP. AQIP is a program, for institutions already accredited by the HLC, to seek reaccreditation utilizing a quality Baldrige-based process. BHC has made application to AQIP to utilize this process in their upcoming reaccreditation cycle. AQIP serves as a natural benchmarking group as it encourages institutions to share best practices. Improvement (I)
5I1. The improvements in communication have included employee forums, Points from the PresidenteNewsletter, Lunch with the President, and increased meetings with Student Government. Additionally the BOT has made changes to the Board Agendas, preserving the employee group, public comment, and comments made by the SGA. The changes have included moving academic and student learning reports to the beginning of the agenda and providing both written and formal presentations by leadership on current initiatives and events occurring within the college.
5I2. The college is guided by the mission, vision and core value statements in effort to provide the environment and resources for individuals to become lifelong learners. The culture of continuous improvement and using data to inform decisions provides critical opportunities for the college to seek feedback from its faculty, staff, and administrators into planning processes. Feedback may be as simple as a quick online survey to evaluate a particular activity, or as complex as being involved with improvement teams bringing live a new course management system. Effective communication is a critical component to fulfilling the mission of the college and has been a focus of the new President. The fundamental goal is to create transparency in communications to gain greater trust and buy-in, which may lead to broader participation on continuous improvement teams.
AQIP Category 5
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Leading and Communicating