President Waterbury presents the awards.

During a brief ceremony in College Hall on October 10, four AUB employees received the first President's Service Excellence Awards and medals granted under the University's new Service Quality Initiative.
Sadik Al-Assaad, associate director of the Development Office; Nellie Ayvazian, registered nurse in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, AUBMC; Suha Kiwan, secretary in the Dietary Department, AUBMC; and Wafa Masri, endoscopy technician, AUBMC were each honored at the ceremony as President John Waterbury gave out the awards.
Also present were Provost Peter Heath, Vice President John Bernson, department heads of the employees receiving the awards and SQI Task Team members Karma el-Hassan and Ziad Yamut.
According to Physical Plant Director Ziad Yamut, the awards were based "on a history of consistent high quality service towards the community of the University and its customers, measured through feedback from past records, supervisors, peers and entities receiving the service."
The four were again honored when some 250 AUB supervisors and managers gathered in Issam Fares Hall on October 12 for a comprehensive overview of the University's Service Quality Initiative.

Service Quality Initiative:
"IT'S FUN TO BE NICE TO PEOPLE."

 The Service Quality Initiative, currently an on-going campaign at AUB, first saw light on campus late in the summer of 1999 through the impetus of an original Task Force consisting of Vice Presidents John Bernson, George Najjar, and George Tomey (see AUB Today, March 2000). The Initiative is a University-wide campaign designed to improve all services at AUB whether medical, clinical, academic, or staff. Its purpose is to assure that the University retains its position as the number one academic institution in the area, capable of rendering superior, state-of-the-art services, not only to students and patients, but within the organization itself.

  On October 12 some 250 AUB managers and supervisors convened in Issam Fares Hall with top administrators for a briefing on the Service Quality Initiative and recognition of the first recipients of the President's Service Excellence Awards, presented two days earlier.

  Addressing the managers and supervisors gathered in Issam Fares Hall, President Waterbury said that every task performed by each employee, from top manager to janitor, is relevant to the image and effectiveness of the University. Through improved levels of service excellence every effort will be made to provide top-notch education for students and superior care for hospital patients.

  "We are all managers," the President insisted. "We all have to deal with our subordinates, and how we do that reflects in turn upon the service we give our students and our patients. Management has to monitor its subordinates and itself." Waterbury added that the SQI is the most important initiative he has taken part in since becoming President of AUB.

  Provost Peter Heath spoke about AUB's historic position in Lebanon and the Middle East. "AUB," he said, "has always prided itself on its quality." It is necessary to monitor that quality constantly to make sure that the University remains a top-class educational institution.

  The University has already undergone 18 months of internal reviews of programs and facilities, including a report on the hospital and an external review of academic programs. A task force is establishing teaching workshops and preparing for accreditation in an all out effort "to look at the way we do things," Heath said. "We need to work on our weaknesses with pride in our strengths."

 Vice President Bernson presented a comprehensive overview of the Initiative, pinpointing the five major components of the program (training, process improvement, management support, measurement, and rewards) established by the original task team.

 TRAINING: Training sessions in service excellence will be offered to all non-academic staff during the year 2000-2001, while at least half of the faculty will participate in workshops on teaching effectiveness this year through a program directed by Associate Provost Wadah Nasr. Training sessions for supervisors and managers, conducted by AUB trainers, are now in full swing at the Al Bustan Hotel in Beit Meri, and will continue through the end of the year. From January through May all non-academic AUB employees will attend service excellence training sessions on campus.

  PROCESS IMPROVEMENT: According to Vice President Bernson, in order to improve, it is necessary for the University to "re-engineer the way we do things in very concrete ways in order to change people's perception of our service quality. . . . The program [will] identify every year, three to five priority re-engineering projects and then work hard for their improvement."

  Process improvement has already begun in such areas as registration, purchasing, hospital admissions, advising, and new faculty orientation; a review of the Physical Plant is underway.
In the area of registration, excellent progress has been made. Students registering this fall (2000) completed the process, Bernson reported, "in a matter of hours not days." Improvement came thanks to the "yeoman efforts" undertaken by I.T., the Registrar's Office, the Admissions Office, the Comptrollers Office, faculty deans, and faculty advisors. Working together, they corrected the "cumbersome, frustrating, and extremely time-consuming" system of registration on campus, which had peaked with much student distress in the fall of 1999-2000.

  According to Task Team Chair Azmi Imad, the Purchasing Department has been examining its role, delineating its mission, and revising its procedures for some time now. Group purchasing for the hospital promises to save much money. Most exciting for other departments on campus is the new "Quick Purchases" policy, which makes it possible for orders under $5,000 to be finalized in one or two days, and not more than five working days. Paper work has also been dramatically reduced. Purchasing now offers "one-stop shopping," pledging no more "run around" for any of its clients.

  "This initiative is long overdue," said Imad. "Can you believe that right now, as we enter the third millennium, some offices in this University still use carbon paper? That some are still using forms introduced 30 years ago?"

  The hospital Admissions Office is concentrating on cutting down the time and paperwork involved for patients entering AUH.

  Workshops have already begun on academic advising.

  Enormous strides have been made in welcoming new faculty members: Coordinator of New Faculty Activities, Ms. Khadija Lakkis, makes sure incoming faculty are met at the airport and that their accommodations are ready for occupancy. Newcomers are provided with necessary information and assistance on paperwork and schools--basically all aspects of life in Beirut; in addition, Lakkis organizes trips to historical sites such as Baalbek and Palmyra.

  MANAGEMENT SUPPORT: "Bringing people together and getting out the message are of vital importance," Bernson explained.
Management support will take the form of improved communication through quality forums, formal meetings such as the October 12 presentation in Issam Fares Hall, and "more informal interactive gatherings." E-mail, the AUB website, AUB publications, and videos will be used to spread the word about the SQI. Management will also support AUB service strategies as well as the important mission statement that each department are defining for itself.

  MEASUREMENT: A vital key to the success of the Service Quality Initiative campaign is measuring its progress through the study of customer feedback (e.g., on registration, new student orientation programs, advising) and a computer-graded employee satisfaction survey to be administered to some 3,000 AUB employees in early November. The Office of Tests and Measurements, led by its Director and Task Team member Professor Karma el-Hassan, will keep constant tabs on progress through a balanced scorecard detailing continual appraisal of performance.

  REWARDS: The final component of the SQI is celebration-- the recognition of service rendered and rewards given for superior service. This year, the President's Service Excellence Award was created to recognize and acknowledge outstanding performance; a teaching excellence award will soon be established as well. From a word of praise to a pat on the back to a letter of recognition, to the President's Service Excellence Award--reward and celebration remain basic fundamentals of the Service Quality Initiative.

  Wrapping up his overview of the campaign at the October 12 meeting, Vice President Bernson said, "So we are moving, moving on a number of fronts. We have made some progress, but we've just begun. This effort will be continuous; we are never going to get finished with it. But it's going to be fun. It's fun to be nice to people . . . [and] make them happy. As our service quality gets better we will feel better about [AUB], this great organization we all work for."

Oversight And Task Teams Spearhead SQ Initiative

The Oversight Team
Chair: Provost Peter Heath
Members:
1. Vice President for Financial Affairs John Bernson
2. Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean, Faculty of Medicine Nadim Cortas
3. Vice President for REP and Dean of the New Business School George Najjar
4. Vice President for Administration George Tomey

The Task Team
Chair: Director of Business Services and Risk Management Azmi Imad
Members:
1. Assistant to the Vice President for REP and Director of Extension Programs Shehadeh Abboud
2. Assistant Director of Personnel Amal Hamadeh, responsible for logistics of training program
3. Director of Tests and Measurements Karma El Hassan, in charge of surveys, questionnaires, and performance measurement
4. Dean of Student Affairs Dean Kevlin
5. Assistant Hospital Director and Director of Nursing Gladys Mouro, directly responsible for the hospital quality improvement program
6. Associate Provost Wadah Nasr, spearhead of teaching effectiveness programs
7. Director of the Hospital John Rhoder
8. Chief of Protection Saadallah Shalak
9. Director of the Physical Plant Ziad Yamut, in charge of President's Service Excellence Awards

Both Azmi Imad and John Rhoder bring vast amounts of personal experience in service quality improvement from long years of involvement in such programs in the United States.

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The AUB Bulletin Today is the official news publication of the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.

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