FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (February 22, 2013)
Contact: Rick DelaHaya, TSU News Services, 615.963.5331
NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) – The Division of Student Affairs at Tennessee State University has earned the 2012 Interest Recognition Award in the annual Excellence in Tennessee recognition program administered by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence. The award was presented Feb. 20 during the 20th Anniversary Excellence in Tennessee awards banquet.
“I am pleased that the Division of Student Affairs has been recognized for their hard work and dedication to improve our services to students,” said Dr. A. Dexter Samuels, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs. “The staff truly embodies ‘Students First’ and our continued work with TNCPE will further advance this philosophy.”
TNCPE recognizes high-performance organizations that exhibit continuous improvement and best practice processesthrough an annual evaluation and assessment process. This is the first year the Division has submitted a self-assessment to the organization, which assisted them in identifying the needs of students, and documented the efforts to provide quality services.
“TNCPE will provide us a feedback report in a few weeks on what they believe our strengths to be and any opportunities we can pursue,” added Samuels.
Organizations like TSU apply to the TNCPE program at one of four levels. A four-tiered process, TSU received recognition at the level one, Interest Recognition or beginner level. As the levels increase, so does the depth and complexity of the application process, which is based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.
According to Samuels, the Division of Student Affairs will apply for the second level, the Commitment Award, for 2013. Other levels include the level three-advanced tier Achievement Award, and the highest level, the Excellence Award. Since the program was founded in 1993, only 22 organizations have attained the Excellence designation.
Along with Tennessee State University, this year TNCPE named 35 organizations as 2012 Award winners, representing outstanding achievement in industry sectors such as health care, manufacturing, service, education, government and nonprofit.
A full list of winners can be found on the TNCPE website www.tncpe.org.
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About Tennessee State University
With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university and is a comprehensive, urban, coeducational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912 Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.