Classroom Quality Management Team (CQMT)
Over the last two decades, Rice has planned for and experienced a significant growth in student enrollment. Consequently, this has increased the necessity and importance of efficient use and utilization of classroom resources. To address this, on several occasions, the Provost has charged multi-disciplinary advisory Classroom Task Forces and Working Groups 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 the inaugural (2010) Classroom Task Force can be found here.
Due to the recognized ongoing need for focused management of critical classroom maintenance and improvement activities, in 2010 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.
While some classroom maintenance activities can be completed in only a few hours, most of the more significant maintenance and improvement activities require classrooms to be unused for weeks or months at a time. This necessitates that most projects occur in the 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, a limited annual budget, and a busy classroom use schedule around which to work, the CQMT must be both diligent and 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
The 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
A high-level summary and history of significant improvement projects can be found here.
The prioritizing and ranking of classroom maintenance and improvement projects is done by CQMT members, with all decisions made together and by unanimous decision. The CQMT consists of eight persons: two members from the OTR (Office of the Registrar), two from the Learning Environments team within the OIT (Office of Information Technology) division, two from the F&CP (Facilities and Capital Planning) division, and two instructors/faculty members from the Rice teaching community.
The current membership of the CQMT is as follows:
- Terry Graham; Manager, Learning Spaces (OIT)
- Chris Higgins; Classroom and Scheduling Manager (OTR)
- Bob Nguyen; Senior Project Manager / Austin Ratcliff; Facilities Project Manager III (F&CP)
- Dr. Carissa Zimmerman; Director, Center for Teaching Excellence
- David Tenney; Registrar (OTR)
- Jason Glim, Director; Network Services and Data Center Operations / Dr. Angela Rabuck; Director of Student Lifecycle & Academic Technologies (OIT)
- Angie Chen; Executive Director of Space Management (CF&P)
- 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:
