On the north wall of Carolyn Palmer’s office hangs a collage of distinctive service and outstanding research awards. With 11 years of serving as first a faculty member, then associate professor and interim chair of higher education at Bowling Green State University, Palmer has amassed quite a number of award plaques. She now has one more award to add to her collection.

Palmer, along with three of her students, received the national 2001 Betty L. Harrah Award for a manuscript published in the Journal of College and University Student Housing. The manuscript documented the finding of their international study on burnout factors for residence hall directors and provided some insight to the problem. Some factors, such as the number of students that directors supervised, were ruled out.

Instead, Paler and her students found sleep disturbances and lack of personal time away from the residence hall were the main contributing factors.

The burnout study was presented in June at the 53rd International Conference of the Association of College and University Housing Officers held in Kansas City, Mo.

“I presented with Carolyn at the conference, and she is not one of those teachers that takes all the credit for students’ research,” graduate assistant Rena Murphy said. “She provides opportunities outside the classroom to broaden the experience for students.”

Palmer can well relate to the problems of a residence hall director, as she worked as a live-in director at the University of Illinois for one year before attending graduate school. When she started her doctoral program at Illinois, she accepted an administrative position as assistant director of housing in exchange for tuition from the college.

At the time, she was in her late 20s, and although divorced and childless, “I found myself responsible for 150 daughters and 350 sons,” Palmer said.

After achieving tenure at the University, Palmer secured a grant and took a year sabbatical from teaching to travel across the United States and Canada visiting campuses with residentially based academic programs.

“I got in my little Toyota and went on the road like my hero Charles Kurault,” Palmer said.

Throughout the year, she stayed in residence halls alongside students at the various universities that she visited. Palmer found herself the only white person living on a residence floor at a historically black college, and at another university, the only woman living on a men’s floor.

At a Cochise college along the Mexican border, a language barrier was overcome when some of the Apache and Spanish-speaking residents spoke in halted English. Now in her spare time from teaching an conducting research, Palmer is writing a book chronicling her experiences with the people she met on the trip.

“(Carolyn Palmer) is truly representative of faculty members who are keeping current with issues in the field,” Linda Swaisgood, director of communications, said. “As a life-long learner, she’s out there gaining new life experiences, which she brings into the classroom.” Palmer serves as Swaisgood’s thesis adviser for her master’s program.

Over the course of her career, Palmer pursued various research interests associated with campus life. In the past, her studies resulted in journal publications on topics such as parental notification about alcohol abuse on campus, hate speech and hate crimes, and violence in residence halls.

Currently, Palmer will be involved in a study that will analyze the impact of fraternities and sororities on the academic achievements of college students. As a three-year nationwide study, the Greek honor society Gamma Sigma Alpha will collaborate with the higher education department at the University. The researchers will assess the relationship between student success and involvement in fraternities and sororities.

On the near horizon, another interest of Palmer’s is the integrational campus of the future. Referring to the national trend of increased non-traditional students, Palmer expressed a concern for connecting the generations within campus activities.

“For far too long, the college campus has been an incredible microcosm of 18- to 22-year-olds,” Palmer said.

With an eye on this changing trend, Palmer is conducting research on a combined university housing complex for retirees and students.

For the most part, Palmer’s research has been geared towards improving student life on campus.

“Dr. Palmer is truly committed to student needs and she does whatever she can to help them move toward their goals,” said associate professor Fiona MacKinnon.

Palmer came to the University in 1990 when the University was first starting its doctoral program in higher education. At the time, a faculty member was needed to help doctoral students with research and analysis of data for the dissertation. As Palmer had a doctorate degree in quantitative and evaluative research methodologies, she had the expertise to help expand the program. “That was 11 years ago, and every day since then I have counted my blessings to be affiliated with a program that I have incredible respect for,” Palmer said.

Overall, the path that led to Palmer’s success was marked by many changes.

“I started college as a math major, but back in the early 60s I got so many messages that women do not become engineers or mathematicians,” Palmer said.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in childhood development and a master’s degree in counseling.

Then “when I went back to grad school, I rediscovered my love of math and research,” Palmer added.

With a desire to continue the learning process and become a better teacher, Palmer took a course last summer in college teacher, Palmer took a course last summer in college teaching. An action, no doubt, that would surprise some of her students.

On the north wall of Palmer’s office hangs a plaque from her master’s thesis students of 1999, which sums up their appreciative sentiments. It reads: “We declare Carolyn Palmer to be the best thesis adviser ever. Thank you for your time, energy, and love of statistics.”