Richland College accepts Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

by John P. Meyer

Not many folks these days are anxious to be on the receiving end of a delivery of metallic objects from Vice President Dick Cheney, but Richland College president Dr. Stephen K. Mittelstet counted himself among the minority today, because the metallic (and acrylic) object in question was none other than the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, presented for the first time to a community college.

Mittelstet and a delegation of 50 Richland College faculty, staff, administrators and students journeyed to Washington to be on hand for the ceremony, while back on campus a luncheon and satellite-feed viewing of the event was arranged.

Oddly, this is the 2005 award; I thought it kind of strange that the awarding is two years behind, but when you dig into the evaluation process you can see why: it entails something like 1,000 hours of review and an on-site visit by examiners charged with verifying information submitted by applicants. Kind of like enduring an extended IRS audit carried out by a whole team of agents: personally, I'd rather sign on for Cheney's next duck hunt, but the folks at Richland must have risen to the occasion because, among other things, the examiners applauded their:

* leadership system, which allows for broad representation and input from faculty, staff, students, community members and other key stakeholders

* strong school culture, which successfully engages participation among students, faculty, staff and community members

* commitment to serve an ethnically diverse student population

* agility in supporting and developing a strong cadre of adjunct faculty members

* effective use of resources in response to a reduction in state funding [Ed. note: this one probably clinched the deal for them, in light of current governmental funding allocations.]

Richland wasn't the only local Baldrige recipient: among the five other winners (out of 64 applicants), Park Place Lexus in Plano also got their hands on a trophy.

Dr. Mittelstet noted that "Richland College has used the Malcolm Baldrige criteria for performance excellence during the past nine years as a framework that guided us through continuous performance improvement," so basically whether they'd gotten the thing or not, they benefited from the program.

Way to go, gang!