Emotional competence and breakthrough leadership
(12/18/2007) The Transformational Leadership Program group at UMD is integrating the key component of emotional competence in the preparation of current and future campus leaders.

Improving on time
(10/30/2007) When all the clocks in the country "fall back" an hour Nov. 4 as daylight saving time ends, the clocks in 300 UMTC central classrooms will be reset by the invisible hand of a new remote system.

Improving student persistence
(10/15/2007) What factors cause students to stay in college and graduate? The second cohort of staff and faculty in UMD's Transformational Leadership Program aims to find out and make a difference.

Light on the subject
(8/28/2007) The Twin Cities campus will save more than $1.5 million over the next five years by changing light bulbs building by building instead of bulb by bulb, and by using a more energy-efficient bulb.

UMD graduates its first Transformational Leadership Program class
(4/10/2007) Nineteen UMD staff members completed an intensive program that has developed their skills and is now transforming campus programs on the path to excellence.

Quality Fair generates big energy
(1/30/2007) The U's first Quality Fair attracted more than 800 people and 53 presenters who showcased best practices and improvement projects from every campus.

Transformational Leadership Program heads north
(10/17/2006) In October, 23 UMD employees began a training program to improve processes, from admissions to facilities management. The program helps participants to see their work from the perspective of those served.

Leading the transformation
(12/12/2005) The Transformational Leadership Project, an innovative partnership of 3M and the U, is preparing 22 U staff members to help make recommended changes into reality.

Teaching Ph.D.s how to teach
(10/25/2005) Historically, doctoral students were simply expected to know how to teach because they were great students. But new programs are producing better future faculty members and delivering better undergraduate education. PACE--the Program for the Advancement of Classroom Excellence--is a Carlson School of Management initiative showing outstanding results.

Emerging leaders take on classroom space challenge
(9/12/2005) Faced with shrinking resources, the U is making the most of what it has--for example, classroom space and staff talent.

Delivering on the promise of e-mail
(7/25/2005) A team of U communicators and technologists has created an in-house, bulk e-mail system that is saving their units money and increasing the quality of the messages. It will be available free to all U offices and departments soon, and savings and value to the U as a whole will increase dramatically.

Reducing faculty paperwork
(5/31/2005) Annual faculty activity reports, required for processes from tenure tracking to college planning, are notoriously cumbersome and time-consuming. Three colleges are leading the way in developing online systems to streamline the process.

UMD continuous improvement
(4/4/2005) When the quest for quality and excellence came to higher education in the early 1990s, UMD was at the forefront. Today, one of its biggest units employs a learning cycle methodology and the Baldrige Criteria to continuously improve and stay competitive in the ever more demanding marketplace of higher education.

Orientation registration goes online
(2/28/2005) It's not just signing up for summer camp--it's 4,000 students' first interaction with the college they want to attend. Orientation registration for the College of Liberal Arts, Twin Cities, used to take 2-3 weeks on paper, by mail. Now it takes a few minutes online for 95 percent of participants, staff can spend more time with students who need customized help, and everybody's happier.

Innovative asset management
(1/31/2005) The Office of Asset Management developed and introduced innovative strategies that are now bringing $6 million in increased revenue to the U each year. It's an improvement success story highlighted by the Office of Service and Continuous Improvement, the first in a monthly series.

Building business cases for the U
(9/27/2004) Meet Scott Martens, former Navy pilot and director of business transformation for American Express. He's now director of the U's new Office of Service and Continuous Improvement. His charge is to lead in assembling the facts and building the business cases that are needed to improve the U and tell its success stories.