[The following article appears in the October 1993 edition of _TQM_in_Higher_Education_.] TQM: "THINK BIG, START SMALL, AND BUILD ON SUCCESS" [by] Mary Lou Santovec You've heard the slogans--Ford's "Quality is Job 1" and Anderson Windows' "Come Home to Quality." Beset by global compe- tition and lagging sales, businesses are rapidly adopting TQM principles. But until recently, few colleges and universities have joined in. One of the leaders of TQM in higher education is St. John Fisher College (NY), which began its quality journey in 1988. Peter Lindsey, dean of admissions, explains how the small, private, liberal arts college found itself in the forefront of change. "In Rochester, we have Eastman Kodak and Xerox, both heavily involved in the process. In fact, Xerox is a former Malcolm Baldrige award winner." Several years ago, the college invited a Kodak executive to instruct directors and senior staff on the intricacies of TQM. "The executive was receptive, knowledgeable, and curious about how TQM could be applied to higher education," Lindsey says. "The executive didn't have a blueprint any more than we did about implementing the principles in higher education. But, we forged a good marriage." From those meetings, a variety of departments--including admissions--began the quality journey. Beginning the Process Through various internal mechanisms, the college established four initial teams. One of the cross-functional teams had improv- ing mail turnaround time as its goal. The team studied the process and made some changes. Those changes reduced the time it took to mail catalogs to prospective students from six weeks to two days, and dramatically decreased the time it took to get some 20 publications to each of the school's 18,000 inquiries. "At one time it was taking us three to five weeks to get our first response to a name in the mail," explains Lindsey. "Now, it takes us five days from the time we receive the name until we have it in the mail." To ensure that level of responsiveness doesn't falter, the team regularly monitors the process. "Occasionally we review it to 'hold the gains,'" explains Lindsey. "Any changes in the process are minor--they fine-tune the system." Another team took on the problem of restricted scholarship aid, to determine if Fisher was offering and expending 100% of the funds. Lindsey admits this was a headache because "we used to find that a scholarship would go begging or that a student awarded one would drop out and we wouldn't be able to replace him/her with another. Our donors needed to see scholarships awarded to students who meet their criteria." The scholarship team reviewed the process and recommended to the president guidelines for gift acceptance, named chairs, professorships, and buildings. The result: happier donors and a significantly better distribution of designated funds. While the other two initial teams didn't successfully complete their tasks, the college learned important lessons from their experiences. Teaching Others Reinforces Learning Lindsey reports that the college began making great strides when the senior staff, who had been trained in TQM principles, taught the rest of the staff the principles of total quality leadership. "We took that gospel and put it into a full training program at the director level, which migrated down through the institu- tion," he explains. When the college set the objective of one quality project per office per year, the movement really gained momentum. The college's next goal will be to try to bring some of the administrative successes and excitement to the faculty. "There's a lot of independence in an academic institution," says Lindsey, "and a lot of that independence is found on the academic side. "It's easier for people who are predisposed to TQM to see its applications in administration. You have to be more creative on the academic side." The Proof Is in the Pudding For many institutions, "one of the challenges is lingo," he admits. "Students as customers is a novel concept for an educa- tional institution." To overcome jargon-created barriers, the college has tried to put TQM principles into friendlier terms by rewriting Deming's 14 points using more academically friendly language. The reaction of Fisher staff to TQM is no different than at many schools. "At first there's resistance," says Lindsey. "Then there's some curiosity about it. Many wonder if it's the latest 'management philosophy dujour.'" But the "proof is in the pudding," he points out. "As you show results, you bring more people on as believers." For Lindsey, part of the proof has been the increasing numbers of students the college has enrolled since 1987. This year, Fisher had the second largest number of freshman applica- tions in its history. And the incoming enrollment was the largest ever. Transfer enrollment this year is off only slightly from last year's record. Lindsey readily admits that TQM is only part of the enroll- ment picture and that other factors are involved, such as what competitors are and aren't doing, and what the faculty is doing. One success he's willing to credit TQM for is an office program planning manual. An admissions office team used brain- storming and the affinity diagram to develop a comprehensive manual that allows a new admissions counselor to plan and execute a complex program from start to finish. The manual was entered in a quality fair held in conjunction with a leadership conference the college sponsored. Three local corporate executives, who had been invited to select award winners, declined to do so because they were impressed with the consistent quality of all Fisher's projects. Substantial Investment Lindsey doesn't shy away from the fact that, in the short run, TQM is a substantial investment of time. "It's very time- and labor-intensive. But so is continuously having to go back and revisit a problem. "In the long run, you find better solutions and you end up serving people better." Lindsey's advice to institutions thinking about starting a TQM journey--"Think big, start small, and build on success." For more information, contact: Peter Lindsey, Dean of Admissions, St. John Fisher College, 3690 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14618; Ph: 716/385-8064. [For more information or to subscribe, contact: TQM in Higher Education Magna Publications, Inc. 2718 Dryden Drive Madison, WI 53704-3086 Phone: 608-246-3580 or 800-433-0499]