Northwest Vista College News

College Leaders Examine Status of Baldrige Process

On March 24, over 25 faculty and staff leaders at NVC gathered in a retreat to examine the status of the Baldrige process on our campus. Attendees were briefed on the seven criteria integral to the continuous process improvement model underlying the Baldrige Award program. Teams of faculty and staff examined the 2007 NVC application to identify required updates and ways to address the opportunities for improvement provided by the 2007 outside evaluation team. We expect this event to result in a significant improvement in the 2008 application due in May.

Fire Drill Measures Success of Emergency Planning

In a continuing effort to improve the safety of students, faculty and staff, NVC conducted a successful fire drill on March 13th. The entire process to evacuate over 200 individuals took less than four minutes. The first person exited the building just 25 seconds after the alarm with all individuals evacuated after 3 minutes 53 seconds. Within eight minutes of the initial alarm, students and faculty were back in classrooms.

Successful outcomes measured by the NVC Crisis Action Team and Building managers at an after incident meeting included:
• The Building Alert Team performed well moving people out of the building and ensuring classroom doors were closed after people exited
• Students were guided to evacuation points smoothly with no disruptions
• Radios worked successfully for all team members and were an important communication tool
• Coordination with DPS, Facilities and NVC Courtesy patrol staff was an important component of the drill and assessment.

Areas for improvement were also documented and will be addressed prior to the next scheduled fire drill in June. These opportunities for improvement included:
• Identifying methods to decrease evacuation time delays due to student/faculty desire to collect personal belongings and
• better compliance with procedures regarding classroom lights.

Second Edition of Spanish Magazine Published

NVC recently published the second edition of our magazine Buena Vista, entirely in Spanish! The purpose of this publication is to establish a platform at NVC where the Spanish language and culture is the main subject. The goal is to have a dialogue with everyone – students, faculty and staff – who can communicate in Spanish and are interested in knowing and sharing different aspects of the Hispanic heritage.  The magazine may also be a handy resource for those of you interested in learning Spanish.You can view the latest issue at: http://buenavista.nvcmultimedia.com/

Continuous Quality Improvement Network Institute Planned

On April 1st and 2nd, President Jackie Claunch and Julie Bajusz, NVC Instructor and CQIN representative, attended a planning meeting for the CQIN Summer Institute. Scheduled for the first week in August, the Institute will focus on a theme of “Legendary Service, Engaged Employees, and Relentless Improvement”. Jeff Hargett, Corporate Director, Learning and Content Delivery, the Leadership Center, the Ritz Carlton, presented the model for the Ritz Carlton’s legendary service. This model, developed over the course of many years, has resulted in two Baldrige Awards for Excellence for the hotel. President Claunch anticipates sharing this information with the District so that the entire district might participate and benefit from this learning and continuous improvement experience.