At the Fall Faculty/Staff meeting on August 21, 1992, I made this announcement:  "Today I am alerting you that we will initiate Trident's Quality Management approach this year."

I had compelling reasons for making that announcement.  Not our governing board, the Area Commission.  Not a federal or state mandate.  Instead, the reasons are personal, practical, and financial.

PERSONAL
In December 1990, I was named interim president at Trident and on June 21, 1991, I was appointed president by the Area Commission.  The governing board realized they had appointed a CEO with a participative management style.  From my many interactions with you, it is apparent to me Trident welcomes the notion of participative management.  A transformation to participative or "quality" management requires top-level commitment and reeducation of all employees.  The transformation requires time, energy, and willingness to change.  Clearly, there is an up-front investment, but in the long run, it reduces cost by increasing our effectiveness and efficiency. 

PRACTICAL
Since January 1991, Trident has provided the home base for TACE, the Trident Area Community of Excellence.  The purpose of TACE is to build a community of "business leaders, educators, military and governmental representatives and professionals, from large industries to small service organizations, from CEO's to front-line workers committed to delivering total quality." 

Along with several others from Trident, I have been active within TACE and have learned first-hand the advantages of being quality-driven.  The quality-driven organization meets the needs of the people it serves, both internal and external.

FINANCIAL
During my tenure as president, the percentage of state funding has steadily decreased while Trident's enrollment has dramatically increased.  We've been required to do more with less.  As we grapple with doing more with less, we're confronting issues that all seem to fall under the heading of QUALITY:  success of our students, excellence of our services/products, involvement of employees, focus on "customers," decisions based on data, and institutional effectiveness.

It is clear to me that "the issue, then, is less TQM itself than the appropriateness of the set of ideas behind it to problems we know we face."

Ted Marchese, "TQM-A Time for Ideas," Change. May/June 1993, p. 11.

Mary Thornley, President
September 2, 1993