Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE)
May 8, 2018
ST. PHILIP¹S COLLEGE ONE OF ONLY TWO TO EARN 2018 TEXAS AWARD FOR PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
St. Philip¹s College (SPC), one of the colleges of the Alamo Colleges District, has been named as one of only two organizations in the state to receive the 2018 Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) by the Quality Texas Foundation (QTF), which recognizes organizational effectiveness and sustainability and represents the national Baldrige Performance Excellence program in Texas. The honor singles out SPC as a state role model for achieving sustained performance excellence. SPC will be presented with the award at the TQF conference June 2426 in Georgetown.
SPC is the only educational institution to win the award since 2016 and the first in higher education since the Alamo Colleges District Support Operations received it that year. Palo Alto College netted the award in 2015, and Northwest Vista College was honored with it in 2007. QTF also recognizes groups committed to the journey of excellence through the TAPE program with five levels Pioneer, Engagement, Commitment, Progress, and Achievement. Last year, SPC received Achievement Level recognition from QTF for the second time. San Antonio College was awarded Progress Level recognition last year as well.
"The TAPE Award takes six-to-ten years to achieve,² said SPC President Dr. Adena Williams Loston. ³We have systematically built our organizational effectiveness and narrowed our focus. We went through several cycles of learning and strategic planning to hone in on our core competencies ‹ quality instruction, student engagement and community engagement. We went back to basics ‹ telling our story and highlighting our core strengths. Thank you to all St. Philip¹s College employees for their hard work, dedication and performance excellence, and to our sister colleges and District Support Operations for their support and encouragement," said Loston. "This award has been a journey. I have a great deal of pride that this award came along during our 120th year² she added.
In January, the college participated in a site visit with examiners from QTF that was part of the process to be eligible for the award. Employee participation and collaboration was a testament to the culture and community at SPC. Many faculty and staff completed an internal survey that provided data in support of the project. Other data points were derived from self evaluation and improvement of processes involving leadership, customer service, workforce, operations, knowledge management and results.
The award affirms to the institution, its stakeholders, taxpayers, students and employers that the 120-year-old college is one of the top performing, most efficient organizations in Texas, and among the most effective in the nation. It demonstrates that the tax and tuition dollars invested in SPC are wisely spent and managed, and that SPC's performance standards are among the most rigorous in the post-secondary education industry. The college's communities can be satisfied in the continuously improving outcomes in student degrees awarded, students' preparation for the workforce and community leadership and the effectiveness of business unit operations in the multi-campus institution.
TAPE recipients are selected based on performance excellence criteria used at the national level for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which awards the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation¹s highest presidential honor for performance excellence. Criteria include seven main categories: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus; and results. For more information about the Quality Texas Foundation, visit www.quality-texas.org.
At the Alamo Colleges, high quality education and affordable costs provide exceptional value to students and alumni who are major contributors to the economy and culture of our community.