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MICHIGAN QUALITY COUNCIL (MQC) NAMES
GRAND RAPIDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE 2007 STATE QUALITY AWARD RECIPIENT
State’s highest honor for organizational performance excellence
April 2, 2007 Grand Rapids, MI – The Michigan Quality Council (MQC) announces Grand Rapids Community College as a 2007 Quality Leadership Award recipient. GRCC is the first college or university in Michigan to win this award and only the second winner from Kent County in the award’s 14-year history.
The Michigan Quality Leadership Award is the state’s highest honor for organizational performance excellence. It is awarded after a rigorous review by a team of examiners who perform a comprehensive site visit and then submit a report for final evaluation to an independent panel of judges.
The MQC’s Leadership award program is modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Leadership program, in which GRCC also participates. Both programs evaluate an organization for excellence in seven categories of performance: leadership; strategic planning customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; staff focus; process management; and organizational results. Participating organizations receive a feedback report identifying strengths and opportunities for improvement; those who demonstrate mature processes and outstanding results may become award recipients.
“GRCC has demonstrated systematic implementation of processes that achieve results for all its stakeholders: students, employees, and the community,” said Geri Markley, executive director, Michigan Quality Council. “They aimed for the top and have shown remarkable progress that may be a role model for other organizations in Michigan and in education.”
“Working together does work,” GRCC President Juan R. Olivarez, Ph.D., told his nearly 1,000 employees with obvious pride at the combined efforts of his team over the last seven years. “We have always felt that we are good at what we do and that our reputation for affordable excellent education is strong. But we wanted to move from good to great,” said Olivarez. “This award verifies that we are on our way.”
Grand Rapids Community College, established in 1914, offers both liberal arts and workforce development degrees, classes and workshops. Student enrollment on the urban campus for both credit and non-credit courses is approximately 26,000 this year. For more information, visit www.grcc.edu.
The MQC was created in 1993 by business and government leaders to promote performance excellence practices that achieve results in business, education, healthcare, and non-profit organizations throughout Michigan. The primary service of the Council is to provide feedback to organizations, culminating in recognizing top Michigan performers. The MQC is now affiliated with Cleary University.
The MQC can be found on the World Wide Web at www.michiganquality.org . For more information, contact 734-929-9124 or mquality@cleary.edu .
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