Thompson Honored by ACPA Steven Beeber NEWS OFFICE STAFF April 14, 2000 Dawn M. Thompson, associate director of Housing Services for Residential Life, has won the Outstanding Experienced Professional Award from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). The award was presented at the ACPA national convention, which took place April 1-5 in Washington, D.C. To qualify for the award nominees were required to have at least 10 or more years of professional employment experience and to have demonstrated outstanding contributions to their campus and to the housing profession. In nominating Thompson for the award, Michael Gilbert, director of Housing Services, praised her ability to integrate issues of social justice and diversity into the work of the residence life department. Among her accomplishments in this area, he said, were creating a departmental "Statement on Multicul-turalism"; creating two new staff positions focused on multiculturalism; and developing "Special Interest Residential Programs" (SIRP) for students of similar race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Gilbert also pointed to Thompson's work in improving residence life for students in general. Among her initiatives in this area were expanding and increasing financial support of "wellness corridors" for students who choose to live in a substance-free environment; increasing the number of residential academic programs which are housed in residence halls; and working with the School of Education and the Hewlett Foundation to offer Project MosaiK, a program which explores new ways of building diverse residential communities. Finally, Gilbert praised Thompson for supporting a campus-wide program addressing issues of violence, and for fostering collaborative relationships with the departments of public safety and mental health and the dean of students office to address related issues that might arise in the future. Before taking over as associate director of Housing Services at the University in 1997, Thompson was associate director for the offices of residential life and judicial affairs at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. She has held positions in housing services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater, Wis., and Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Thompson graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, in 1981. She received her master's in student personnel work in higher education from Ohio State University in 1983.