La Jolla, CA – The California Council for Excellence (CCE) presented National University with its second consecutive Eureka Award for Performance Excellence in late December. National University was the only institution of higher education to receive the award in 2003 and is the second university-level recipient ever.
CCE’s mission is to help California organizations achieve world-class service and products through the principles and criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award .
CCE annually presents the California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) program, which honors educational institutions as well as manufacturing companies, service companies, government agencies, healthcare, non-profit, and military organizations. The CAPE program features three levels; the California Challenge; the California Prospector; and the Eureka Award for Performance Excellence, also known as the “Baby Baldrige” award.
Qualification for the CAPE award requires a 50-page Baldrige application along with a five-page organizational profile. Awards are conferred at the Gold, Silver and Bronze levels. National University won a Bronze Award this year.
CAPE criteria for performance excellence provide a systematic method for evaluating management standards and practices, and offer a uniform standard by which an organization can measure itself. Because the CAPE Award is accepted statewide as a model for performance excellence, its criteria represent objective guidelines by which California-based organizations can define and share best practices.
National University System Chancellor Dr. Jerry C. Lee credits the Baldrige process with fostering a culture of assessment by which each department within the University continuously evaluates its performance and makes appropriate and timely adjustments to secure outcomes that are more closely aligned with institutional goals and objectives.
In related news, The University of Wisconsin has invited National University to author a chapter in a book it is preparing on quality initiatives. The University of Wisconsin , Stout is the only university to ever win a national Baldrige Award.
For more information on National University and its CAPE Award , please contact Hoyt J. Smith at (858) 642-8111, or visit the California Council for Excellence Web site at www.calexcellence.org