Showcase displays ideas, solutions for campus improvements

Barbara Erlenborn, academic department supervisor for botany, has learned a few things from folks in the College of Engineering. After struggling with the complexity of travel expense reports, Erlenborn found enlightenment at Showcase.

The annual event is a compendium of displays and programs about changes campus units have made to improve work, learning and climate. Co-sponsors are the Office of Human Resource Development and the Office of Quality Improvement.

“My first experience with Showcase was like a thunderbolt from the heavens,” Erlenborn says. “The event is a phenomenal opportunity to see how other areas solve problems creatively.”

At Showcase, Erlenborn discovered that the College of Engineering already had addressed travel expense reports. Erlenborn found answers to her questions and a process for handling contingencies. She and her department’s financial specialist later met with Dennis Manthey, a financial specialist with engineering, who provided them with a PowerPoint presentation, flow charts and a lot of assistance.

“Without Showcase, this information would have remained unknown to areas outside of the College of Engineering,” Erlenborn adds. “This information was then shared with other department administrators and has greatly simplified the travel-expense-report process in our area.”

Best practices like these and others will be on display at Showcase 2004 on Monday, April 5, from 7:45 a.m.-noon at the Fluno Center. Attendance is free. This year’s theme is “Organizational Effectiveness: Improving Work, Learning and Climate.”

“Projects related to the campus strategic priority ‘accelerate internationalization’ will be among the initiatives the Division of International Studies will highlight,” says Catherine Meschievitz, associate dean of international studies and associate director of the International Institute. International Studies will focus on several pilot projects that have stimulated innovation in curriculum, study abroad and other areas of undergraduate international education.

“The Showcase highlights impressive examples of what we can learn from each other and challenges us to incorporate them in a meaningful way into how we operate our campus,” says Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration.

Showcase posters and breakout sessions will emphasize ideas and tools that people can adapt for use in their own units. Session topics will include follow-up with keynote speakers, technology tools for gathering feedback and making decisions, and resources for improving climate.

Featured speakers are Benjamin Quillian, senior vice president of business and operations for the American Council on Education; and Brent Ruben, executive director of the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership at Rutgers University. They will provide a national context for the planning and improvement efforts taking place throughout UW–Madison.

Anyone interested in submitting a poster idea should contact Nancy Thayer-Hart, 263-6856, nthayerhart@wisc.edu. For more information, including registration, visit http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/showcase/.