| Quality Council |  |
Historically, the purpose of the Central Arizona College Quality Council (formerly the NCA Steering Committee) has been driven by accreditation. With the emphasis of district wide quality, a need existed for an entity to coordinate, monitor, and provide leadership in the development and implementation of quality initiatives. Therefore, this council is responsible for coordinating college quality initiatives with accreditation requirements.
The council also provides leadership and training in the development and implementation of quality initiatives and serves as a resource to the college for quality improvement. This will include serving on quality initiative teams as a quality liaison and coordinating college initiatives with accreditation activities (Action Projects, Systems Portfolio, Systems Appraisal, Strategy Forum, Check-Up Visit, and Reaffirmation).
To facilitate the continuous quality improvement process, the President appoints representatives, deemed experts in their area, from each college constituency group across the district. The council works closely with the college's academic and support operations to ensure efforts that the best practices for improvement initiatives are employed. Units within the college use appropriate results to identify opportunities for improvement. These results include the CAC Systems Portfolio and Appraisal, Academic Program Review, and other institutional assessments and data. Appropriate units tackle smaller improvement initiatives on their own. Larger initiatives typically employ the support of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Advancement. Quality initiatives can emerge from a variety of sources. Based on results from an evaluative tool (survey, needs assessment or formal program review), a unit or employee may decide to develop and implement a quality initiative. A quality initiative may result from an AQIP activity such as the Systems Portfolio, Systems Appraisal or Strategy Forum.
Committee decisions resulting in recommended course of action are substantiated by a clearly written rationale along with supporting documentation for the recommendation. The committee facilitator (Quality Initiatives Coordinator) submits the recommended action to the College President for discussion with the Executive Council. The President informs the committee facilitator of the decision in writing within three weeks. If the recommendation is not accepted or is modified, the President provides a clearly written rationale, which is shared with council members and officers of the employee constituency groups.
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