Fred Rogers, senior vice president and chief financial officer, is asking departments to participate in the university's annual Cost Reduction Awards program.
The program is designed to recognize achievements in improving the quality and reducing the cost of programs and services on campus. Cornell awards range in value from $100 to $500 and will be given directly to the departments whose projects have been chosen. Use of the money is at the discretion of department managers, but they are asked to share the award with the originator(s).
Select winners in the Cornell program will be forwarded to the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)/Barnes& Nobles 1998 Higher Education Awards Program. NACUBO winners receive cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 as well as recognition at the NACUBO annual meeting and in NACUBO publications.
Cornell's awards program is structured the same as the NACUBO program, and for 1998, there are two award categories: the Management Achievement Award, which recognizes initiatives to improve the quality of department and campuswide programs, and the Process Improvement/Resource Enhancement Award, which recognizes process improvement and/or resource enhancement through re-engineering, redesign or restructuring that have reduced costs or increased revenues.
The deadline for the completion of application materials for all award categories is Nov.14.
Management Achievement Award. This award seeks to reward achievements in improving the quality of higher education programs and services. Applications are evaluated on the basis of the applicant's quality system approach, deployment and results. Examples of initiatives for this award category include total quality management programs, organizational restructuring, streamlining or consolidating administrative and business processes, and academic and other major management efforts to improve service quality. This award recognizes programs that focus on factors and outcomes, such as benchmarking; student and customer satisfaction and retention; service quality; productivity and operational effectiveness; satisfaction, performance and development of faculty, staff or external constituencies to the institution (donors, grantors, suppliers, contractors, etc.); and public accountability and responsibility.
Process Improvement/Resource Enhancement Award. This award recognizes colleges and universities that have successfully re-engineered, redesigned or restructured a program, project or activity and/or have reduced costs, increased revenues, or improved productivity or customer services. Initiatives submitted for this award should be innovative or nontraditional in terms of approach or execution.
Material outlining application and judging criteria, as well as application forms, are available from Robin Yager, 317 Day Hall, 255-5711, rmy1@cornell.edu