WSU College of Liberal Arts Presents Annual Awards

PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State University College of Liberal Arts
will present annual achievement awards at a 3:30 p.m. ceremony Friday, April
28, in Kimbrough Hall, Room 101

Political science major Melissa Busley will receive the Distinguished
Achievement Award for a Graduating Senior. Busley is a member of three
honor societies: Golden Key, Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi. She has served
as president of the Pre-Law Club, treasurer for the International Affairs Club
and a delegate to the Model United Nations. She was also director of Student
Legal Services. Busley is a 1997 graduate of Kelso High School. Her parents
are Robert and Audrey Busley of Toledo.

The Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty will go to Riley Dunlap,
professor of sociology and rural sociology. Dunlap is one of the founders of
the field of environmental sociology and has contributed to its development in
many ways, including devising the world’s most frequently used measure of
environmental attitudes. He won a Distinguished Contribution Award from the
American Sociological Association, and is WSU’s Boeing Distinguished
Professor of Environmental Sociology and the Gallup Organization’s Gallup
Scholar in Environment. In 1992, Dunlap directed the world’s most
comprehensive environmental opinion survey for the Gallup International
Institute. He is senior editor of American Environmentalism and Public
Reactions to Nuclear Waste and has served on the editorial boards of eight
journals. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.

Phyllis Nilson will receive the Outstanding Staff Award. For many of Nilson’s
30 years at WSU, she has been supervisor of the Kemble Stout Music
Listening Library in the school of music and theatre arts. Nilson is an adviser
to the WSU chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon, a national music honorary, and served
on the Kimbrough Hall building committee. She is noted for her efficiency in
providing needed instructional materials and her own knowledge and love of
the field of music. She provides leadership and inspiration to the department
by, among many other things, using her own time and materials to create
banners noting the accomplishments of faculty, students and staff.

The William F. Mullen Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes
excellence in teaching with an emphasis on involvement with students outside
the classroom, goes this year to Raymond Sun, professor of history. In
addition to teaching history department courses, Sun teaches courses for
world civilizations, the honors college and extended degree programs. His
courses are among the highest enrollments in the department and his student
evaluations are extremely positive, with some of his students ranking him
higher than the form allows. He expects excellence from his students, and many
have won awards for history papers written with his advice. His nominator also
credited him for the renewal of the WSU graduate program in European
history, which also has turned out award-winning alumni. Sun also excels as a
student adviser and carries the heaviest load of advisees in the history
department.

The award of the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professorship in Government
and Public Policy to Donald Dillman will be announced at the ceremony.
Dillman is a professor of sociology and rural sociology and deputy director for
research and development of the Social and Economic Sciences Research
Center at WSU. His research centers on improving survey methods and how
information technologies influence rural development. In the mid-1990s, he
spent two years at the U.S. Bureau of the Census in Washington, D.C.,
improving census questionnaires. He held top offices in the Rural Sociological
Society and received the society’s Outstanding Service Award in 1983 and its
Excellence in Research Award in 1998. His latest book is “Mail and Internet
Surveys: The Tailored Design Method.” Among his many WSU awards is the
1995 Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Research.

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