Deans and Administrators

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J. Michael Thompson

Vice Provost, Enrollment Services and
Dean, Admission and Financial Aid
University of Southern California

J. Michael Thompson was named Vice Provost and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid in February of 2002. Thompson directs the University's enrollment effort, including managing and planning student recruitment, admission and financial aid policies, student application processing, and student aid. He is responsible for communicating USC's strengths to potential students and their parents, continuing students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Thompson came to USC from UC Santa Cruz where he served as Associate Vice Chancellor of Outreach, Admission and Student Academic Services. He was responsible for campus orientation, services to transfer and re-entry students, and the University's Disability Resource Center. He was the architect of the Educational Partnership Center, the UC Santa Cruz outreach effort that integrated professional development activities for teachers with student-centered academic preparation and motivational activities.

He led the UC-systemwide effort to build UC Gateways, a software system that allows middle school and high school students to match their course and grades against the admission requirements of UC universities. This system also facilitates in building an online portfolio of career and major interests. In 2001 UC Gateways won an IBM Best Practices in Students Services award.

Under Thompson, UC Santa Cruz increased enrollments, improved academic quality, and built a more diverse student body. The campus had its greatest increase in interest from prospective students since the first five years of its existence and led all UC campuses in increase in applications for 2001.

Thompson previously served as Registrar at Loyola Law School, Associate Registrar at UCLA as well as Registrar and Director of Student Academic Information Systems at UC Irvine. At UCI he began working with the earliest World Wide Web browsers to provide information for prospective and continuing students. He led the team that built the first version of the University of California's online application, Pathways, in 1994/5.

He has lectured across the country on the effective use of technology in admission and student service and for several years served as the WWW national resource person for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Thompson earned a B.A. in literature from Loyola Marymount University and completed the Executive Education program at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.