College of Saint Mary formally adopted continuous quality improvement methodology when it became accepted into the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) by the Higher Learning Commission in 2004.    

 

Quality improvement methodology encourages us to ask: "How can we improve what we are already doing?" or "What else should we be doing or doing in a different way?"  You can see many of the completed and in process projects by clicking on the Quality Improvement Projects page.    

  

Quality improvement organizations are characterized by:  

  

·         Continuous improvement through action projects and continuous assessment of student learning through academics and co-curricular programs 

·         Empowerment of employees to improve processes through working together united by common intention and shared values in the CSM mission    

·         Focus on key processes that add value to those CSM serves 

·         Decisions based on systematic collection and analysis of data that informs us about stakeholders' needs and effectiveness of current processes in meeting those needs  

·         Systems thinking by seeing the whole as the greater sum of its parts 

·         Stakeholder focus by considering the needs of all constituencies including students and their families, faculty, staff, and the communities served by the university and our graduates 

  

Quality improvement is under the guidance of the Council on Institutional Effectiveness. Please click here to see more about AQIP at CSM and the AQIP Web site.