UWG News Item
Contact: UWG Public Relations Office
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
UWG Campus Planning and Facilities recognized
September 12, 2005
CARROLLTON, GA - The Campus Planning and Facilities Department at the University of West Georgia (UWG) joins a select group of organizations to receive statewide recognition at the Georgia Oglethorpe Annual Conference and Awards Banquet.
Mike Renfrow, assistant vice president for campus planning and facilities, said “the department is honored and excited to receive this recognition.”
UWG’s Campus Planning and Facilities will be recognized during the Georgia Oglethorpe Annual Conference and Awards Banquet to be held Sept. 26-27, at the Marriot Atlanta Century Center. The department receives this recognition alongside Savannah Technical College and Carl Vinson VA Medical Center, Dublin. Augusta VA Medical Center will receive the 2005 Georgia Progress Award; and the 2005 Georgia Oglethorpe Award, the state’s top honor, goes to Eastanollee Elementary School.
In an effort to continually support UWG’s commitment to the pursuit of Educational Excellence in a Personal Environment, the Campus Planning and Facilities Department provides facility support, logistics, maintenance, construction planning, risk management and environmental health and safety assistance to the entire campus.
Renfrow explained that the department strives to achieve continuous improvement.
“The primary goal for going through this application process is to determine how we can be a more effective student-focused organization,” said Renfrow.
The Georgia Oglethorpe assessment criteria helped guide Campus Planning and Facilities toward creating and sustaining better management systems and leadership approaches. Overall, these positive changes have resulted in an improved internal climate and enhanced ways of reaching and serving the department’s constituents.
Georgia Oglethorpe is a nonprofit, public-private partnership located at the Georgia Department of Labor. It specializes in helping organizations improve by providing education, assessment, feedback and recognition based on the national Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. There are three levels of assessment: Focus Recognition, Progress Award and Oglethorpe Award.
“Governor Perdue has encouraged organizations to use the Georgia Oglethorpe Criteria for Performance Excellence on which the assessment is based as a road map for achieving an organization’s goals and objectives,” said Victoria Currie Taylor, executive director of the Georgia Oglethorpe Award process. “The criteria is a predictor, not a guarantee, of future excellent performance. Receiving this recognition requires a rigorous self- and third-party assessment of the organization against the Georgia Oglethorpe Criteria.”
Over the past eight years Georgia Oglethorpe’s all-volunteer Board of Examiners have provided nearly $4 million in essentially free consulting to 49 Georgia organizations through its assessment and feedback process. For more information, please contact the Georgia Oglethorpe office at 404-232-3808, goap@mindpring.com, or go to www.GeorgiaOglethorpe.org.
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