Highlights of Showcase 2003
Excellence in Challenging Times: Improving Work, Learning, and Climate
April 14, 2003
"The Showcase allows us to observe many efforts underway to improve campus programs and services. Adopting and learning from other units' efforts is one way that we can magnify the impact of these individual projects."
- Chancellor John Wiley -
Showcase Success!
High energy and motivating were a couple of ways that attendees described Showcase 2003 on April 14th at the Fluno Center. Poster displays, keynote addresses and breakout sessions, which highlighted myriad improvement examples, were attended by a Showcase-record number of people, many of whom we welcomed to this event for the first time.
Perhaps the best way to tell the story of campus improvements is through the Showcase numbers, which reflect significant effort by many people to improve work, learning, and climate on campus:
- 250 attendees
- 44 poster displays, including:
- 8 from academic departments
- 10 featuring improvements in academic service
- 13 planning, 19 process improvement, and 17 climate examples
- 24 used technology
- 20 improvements had a direct benefit to students
- 9 breakout sessions on topics such as budgeting, hiring, climate, My UW-Madison, and business services web resources.
- Based on 118 evaluation responses:
- over 80% felt that the poster and concurrent sessions gave them ideas to use in their work;
- 80% indicated that they had the opportunity to meet new campus colleagues;
- 92% would recommend this annual event to others
We encourage you to respond to Chancellor Wiley's challenge to learn from and build upon the numerous improvements and to document the improvements you're making so that others, in turn, can learn from your efforts.
Thank you to all who attended Showcase 2003, and to all the presenters and supporters who made it possible!
Poster sessions featured
- Administrative and academic units
- Improvement of work, learning, and climate
- Efforts targeting students, staff, and faculty
Showcase 2003 Aims
The Showcase event has four primary aims:
| Linking | Both participants and presenters benefit by connecting with others from across campus who share common interests and concerns |
| Learning | Learning occurs as people share their improvement efforts, useful tools, and lessons learned |
| Leading | Presenters demonstrate the myriad ways that they are leading change in their units; participants become familiar with best practices and gain insights into how they can advance improvements |
| Leveraging | Connecting with campus colleagues and learning about improvement efforts serves to leverage ideas and resources for future efforts to improve work, learning, and climate for students, faculty, and staff. |
Challenging Times
What do we mean by "challenging times?"
Most of us are well aware of the real and projected budgetary conditions, but we are also faced with other real challenges: improving diversity and climate; addressing students' changing needs; communicating across boundaries on a decentralized campus; maximizing technological resources; and responding to external demands for increased accountability. UW-Madison's excellence is advanced when we face these challenges head on and continually makes things better.