The assistant dean for residential services at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Margaret A. Jablonski, will be the new associate dean and and section head for Residence and Campus Activities at MIT.
The announcement was made this week by Dr. Arthur C. Smith, dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs, who said Dr. Jablonski would take up her duties at MIT on February 1.
Dr. Jablonski went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester in 1988 as director of housing, and was soon promoted to her present position as assistant dean for the 1,300-student housing system.
She also has served as victim assistance program coordinator at Boston University (1987-88), assistant director of housing at BU (1985-87), family housing coordinator at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1983-85), and director and assistant director of Greek affairs at UMass-Amherst (1981-83).
Dr. Jablonski received her BA degree in history, cum laude, from UMass-Amherst in 1981, and also the Dean Field Award for Outstanding Service to the University. She received a master's degree in education from UMass-Amherst in 1984, with a concentration in higher educational policy, research, administration. She received her doctorate in education from BU in 1992, focusing on organizational analysis, qualitative research, legal issues, leadership and supervision, and women's studies.
Her doctoral dissertation on the leadership styles of women college presidents received three awards: the National Association for Women in Education Research of the Year Award, the BU Graduate Student Association Dissertation of the Year award, and the Massachusetts College Personnel Association Research Award.
At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she is responsible for residence life and housing, she developed and implemented a $3.6 million budget focusing on the quality of student life in the residence system.
She also coordinates summer conference housing and supervises the student security program.
Special projects included: managing the merger of the housing and residential life programs into one department by concentrating on the delivery of quality services; coordinating the complete renovation of a residence hall; expanding off-campus housing services and publications; revising the assignments program housing lottery, and vending services; and revising the Residence Hall Living Book.
Her professional associations included the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, the National Association of Women in Education, the Massachusetts Association for Women in Education (executive committee, five years), the Northeast Association of College and University Housing Officers, the Massachusetts College Personnel Association, and the American Association of University Women.
A version of this article appeared in the December 8, 1993 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 17).
