ATD process maps moved for better access

Last year, Southwest debuted new process maps accessible to students, faculty and staff through the Achieving the Dream (ATD) SharePoint site in the MySouthwest portal and released another round this past May. ATD Program Director Sindy Abadie says the maps were great, but hard to find and therefore not used much. This recent launch hopefully solves that problem.

The maps are now readily available directly through the MySouthwest portal homepage, Abadie said. I hope that by making the maps visually available, they will be utilized, she added. It is important that these processes are followed in order to move the college toward meeting our strategic priorities and supporting student success.

Abadie says the maps also are more user friendly, allowing users to search for references. The maps are the result of a two-year effort that began in 2015 when newly appointed Southwest President Dr. Tracy D. Hall recognized the need to establish uniform student-centered processes at Southwest to increase student equity and success. In 2016, Southwest joined Achieving the Dream, a national education reform network, and selected Student Affairs processing as its focus. And so began the Redesign, Reinvent, and Reset Southwest movement.

More than 22 committees were formed to address every conceivable area an employee and student of Southwest would encounter, from recruitment and graduation, to financial aid and career services. “The result was an organically-driven, culture building project that was powerfully inclusive in its approach and methodology,” Abadie said.

Employees and students collaborated on the project and presented their feedback based on experience and research. In 2017, the group switched its focus to academic affairs. The committees’ reports helped build the framework for Southwest’s Focus 2020 Strategic Plan.

Explore the new process maps at the MySouthwest portal. To learn more about how the new process maps were created, visit ATD at Southwest. For questions and updates to the process maps, contact Sindy Abadie at csabadie@southwest.tn.edu.