NGCSU president launches campus customer service initiative

DAHLONEGA (July 25, 2006) – North Georgia College & State University will launch its “Customer Service Improvement Initiative,” along with the other University System of Georgia institutions of higher education on Aug. 1.

Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. is asking the 38,000 faculty and staff employed by Georgia’s 35 public colleges and universities to provide faster, friendlier, more efficient service to the USG’s “customers,” including more than 253,500 students.

In coordination with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s launch today of the state’s new “Customer Service Improvement Initiative” in which all state agencies have united in an effort to make Georgia the best-managed state in the country, Davis announced that every USG campus is poised to implement a plan for improving customer service beginning Aug. 1.             

“The campus-based customer service improvement plans that will be launched in August will begin to create a culture that places more emphasis on customer service,” Davis stated. “In line with the Governor’s goal of achieving the best-managed state government, we intend to provide a model of service unparalleled in public higher education. Many of our faculty and staff already place our students’ needs first, but we need to institutionalize this practice and really own it.”

	President David Potter

NGCSU President David Potter said: “North Georgia is pleased to participate in the state's Customer Service Initiative. We take great pride in our reputation as a caring community. Our goal is to be responsive to the needs of all who interact with our university in service to learning and in keeping with our commitment to the values of integrity and respect for others.”

With almost 5,000 students at North Georgia, Potter has designated Thomas George, the director of NGCSU Human Resources, as the university’s “Customer Service Champion” to launch, guide and manage improvements that will make the services provided by North Georgia “faster, friendlier and easier” to access.

Thomas George

"While many of the institutions have chosen to target individual departments with their customer service plans,” George said, “NGCSU is taking a giant step forward at the urging of Dr. Potter and targeting all areas that deal with students, faculty, staff, and the external community.”

Several months ago at North Georgia, Potter appointed a “Quality Service Initiative Committee.” George, who serves on the committee, said that university employees throughout the numerous departments on campus will be encouraged to track requests, the time involved in responding, and the solutions offered.

“It is expected that over time, the state of Georgia's concept of a friendlier, faster, and more efficient Georgia will become part of the NGCSU fabric,” he added.

On Aug. 1, USG officials will launch a new Web site (www.customerfocus.usg.edu) that will allow faculty, staff, students and taxpayers alike to monitor the progress being made with customer service improvements, and to view the customer satisfaction scores of USG campuses. Visitors to the Web site also will be able to submit their suggestions and criticisms via an online comment tool.

DAHLONEGA (July 14, 2006) – North Georgia College & State University, one of only six four-year military colleges in the nation, will welcome more than 650 cadets to campus when the military-initiation period, called FROG Week, begins on Aug. 15. More than 275 freshmen are expected to go through the training.

Enrolled at the institution is a student body of 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students, which includes the 650-member Corps of Cadets.

Many upper-level students who are veterans of the war on terror are returning to campus and will use that experience to help train the incoming military recruits. More than 120 NGCSU students have been called to active duty military service since the start of the war. More than 60 North Georgia students recently returned from a one-year deployment in Iraq with the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team.

Many of North Georgia’s cadets are reservists in the armed forces, accounting for the significant impact on campus of military deployments. Several of the students have been deployed twice while in college.

FROG (Freshman Recruit Orientation Group) Week, takes place immediately before the start of classes. Cadets are engaged in a host of physical and mental activities including cliff rappelling, road marching, crossing rivers, negotiating obstacle courses and tactical training. Building teamwork and decision-making skills is a part of the initiation process. This unique introduction to college and military life will culminate in a graduation run up and down Dahlonega’s Crown Mountain on Aug. 20.

Producing well-prepared military officers and civilian leaders is part of NGCSU’s leadership mission for its entire student body. Among the university’s alumni are three dozen generals.

The university’s “Legacy of Leadership” initiative helps strengthen North Georgia’s mission to produce well-prepared military officers and civilian leaders.

FROG Week is the start to building the foundation for military students to be leaders in their life endeavors.

To find out more about the FROG Week schedule, please contact Joshua Preston at 706-864-1949 or jipreston@ngcsu.edu.

DAHLONEGA (July 2, 2006) – Virgil Wayne McIntyre (1950-2003), a native of Fitzgerald, Ga., was honored posthumously in May with a scholarship established in his name at North Georgia College & State University.

Virgil McIntyre

The 20-year career employee ushered North Georgia College into the era of electronic computing in the late 1970s. He was the director of Computer Services and from 1976-96 he pioneered new computing solutions for operations on the campus. Manual punch cards and boxes full of paper records in the business and registrar’s offices soon gave way to printers and desktop computers.

“Faculty also had nothing in the way of computers,” said Dahlonega resident Gary Steffey, a friend of McIntyre’s and the former registrar and director of admissions at the college. “When Virgil was at NGC, faculty members were getting computers on their desks for the first time.”

	L to R: Civitan Club members Clayton Grant, Jimmy Berrong, Willie Gordon, Gary Steffey and Bonnie Morris with members of Virgil McIntyre’s family – widow Margie McIntyre, son-in-law Ryan Suggs, father Neal Waldo McIntyre, daughter Sonya Suggs, grandson Martin Suggs and stepmother Bobbie Jean McIntyre. Virgil also has a son, Vincent McIntyre.

Civitan Club members, who are closing the local chapter in Dahlonega, chose to honor McIntyre’s memory and service to the university by establishing a scholarship in his name. The club members wanted to do something worthwhile with the more than $13,000 they had for a final service project and which related to the nationwide public service organization’s focus on helping those with developmental disabilities.

The Virgil McIntyre Scholarship, managed through the NGCSU Foundation, will be awarded to North Georgia students majoring in special education and who demonstrate a financial need and scholarly aptitude, according to Steffey, who is a Civitan member.

Steffey emphasized what a watershed event getting computers on campus was and McIntyre’s efforts to maximize the impact of the technology.

“As many schools did, we’d go through the registration process with punch cards, which was cumbersome,” said Steffey. “We’d move down to the gym sometimes to get everything done.

“Virgil implemented electronic admissions and records procedures. He set up the computers to register the students in the registrar’s office and then set up computer labs for students to eventually register themselves.”

Steffey said that McIntyre’s collaboration with the business office was equally instrumental in making the work processes in business more efficient.

McIntyre found a home in north Georgia after graduating from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Middle Georgia College. After his North Georgia career, he traveled around the country as a senior higher education computer consultant, writing software programs for Cyber Inc. out of Greenwood Village, Colo. His work included solutions for the Oracle and PeopleSoft systems.

The McIntyre family visited North Georgia in May to meet Civitan Club members and thank them for their efforts in establishing the scholarship.

For more information about the Virgil McIntyre Scholarship, contact the NGCSU Foundation at 706-867-2873.

This page last modified on: Thursday, 06 December 2007 15:48:47 -0500 by University Relations    

:: Disclaimer   :: Accessibility