The University Record, April 24, 1995
Womack: M-Quality “puts decision-making down where it belongs’
A report distributed to the Regents last week “captures real problems being attacked by people who know the most about them,” said Farris W. Womack, executive vice president and chief financial officer.
The report contains background on the University’s M-Quality initiative and includes a “not exhaustive” list of more than 100 team active campuswide.
“This is an example of the way the University gets changed,” Womack said, “unlike trying to solve the budget crisis in Washington with one meeting. It puts decision-making down where it belongs.”
An exhibition at the School of Art that opened this past weekend was cited by Womack as an example of how individuals are becoming more sensitive to their customers and to the need to deliver good service.
“Mondrian at Slusser” required the reconstruction of the artist’s studio as a display background for his works and tools, “which we didn’t know about ahead of time.”
Womack got a call from art school Dean Allen Samuels last week, who first asked Womack if he was sitting down because Samuels didn’t think Womack often got the type of news he had. The gist of the conversation:
“The people took responsibility and reconstructed it with artistic feeling and real care.”
