Classroom Quality Management Team (CQMT)

As part of the V2C, Rice planned a significant growth in enrollment, which increased the importance of effective use and utilization of classrooms. To address this, the Provost convened a multi-disciplinary advisory Classroom Task Force in 2008 to evaluate classroom usage and quality, and to make formal recommendations on matters such as:

  • Prioritizing classroom improvement projects and allocating budget resources
  • Recommending policy on classroom scheduling matters
  • Investigating methods for distributing classroom usage throughout the day/week

Details about this task force can be found here.

This task force’s term was to be only two years, but the activities necessary for maintenance and improvement of classrooms, in constant use semester after semester, must be performed continually without a set end date. Due to this perpetual need for focused management of critical classroom improvement activities, the Provost approved the creation of a permanent subcommittee – the Classroom Quality Management Team (CQMT) – which was then charged with the responsibility of identifying, selecting, and managing classroom maintenance and improvement activities, and for wisely allocating the university-supplied funds for these rooms.

Some classroom maintenance activities can be completed in only a few hours, but most improvement activities require classrooms to be unused for weeks or months at a time. This necessitates that most projects occur in summer due to the consistently high classroom demand by fall and spring classes. However, Rice’s classrooms often feature a complicated schedule of varied summer programs and classes as well, so planning classroom projects can prove challenging. With stewardship of more than one hundred classrooms, with a limited annual budget, and with a busy classroom use schedule around which to work, the CQMT must be judicious about the classroom improvement projects undertaken.

The CQMT selects classroom improvement projects in consideration of many factors including:

  • current and projected classroom need
  • estimated cost
  • university timelines, such as semester schedules
  • positive and negative effects on the current classroom inventory during and after work

Following are examples of typical classroom maintenance and improvement projects:

  • updating/upgrading AV components such as projectors, computers, and network communications equipment
  • replacing old/broken student desks
  • repainting walls
  • recarpeting
  • replacing heavily used whiteboards
  • repurposing of rooms to increase utilization and to address projected university need

The history of significant improvement projects can be found here.

At the outset, two members each of the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Information Technology, and Facilities, Engineering, and Planning comprised the CQMT. In 2014, the six CQMT team members added two faculty members to the group’s roll.

The current membership of the CQMT is as follows:

  • Pat Dwyer, Executive Director for Space Management (FEP)
  • Terry Graham; Manager, Learning Spaces (OIT)
  • Chris Higgins; Classroom and Scheduling Manager (OTR)
  • Bob Nguyen; Project Manager (FEP)
  • Dr. Carissa Zimmerman; Director, Center for Teaching Excellence
  • David Tenney; Registrar (OTR)
  • Dr. Angela Rabuck, Associate Vice President (OIT)
  • Faculty Member (vacant)

Through frequent offline communication and group meetings several times per year, the CQMT executes the necessary activities in support of its charge, with timely observance of the yearly calendar:

CQMT Annual Calendar Process