Digital Commons Network^™

Children In The Workplace: An Exploration In Library Policy Making, Sharolyn Swenson, Marissa Anne Bischoff, Ryan Lee

Faculty Publications

Children in the workplace are becoming a more common discussion in various work environments, including libraries. Since the university has no policy addressing this issue, a task force was charged to draft a recommended policy for the university library regarding bringing children to the workplace. The task force reviewed existing policies and conducted a survey and interviews with library employees. The resulting policy provided guidelines for employees and their supervisors without being overly prescriptive. This article provides a case study of how the task force used assessment methods and tools to create an appropriate and inclusive policy. While the specific …

Policy Comparison Of Lead Hunting Ammunition Bans And Voluntary Nonlead Programs For California Condors, Robin M. Rotman, John H. Schulz, Samantha Totoni, Sonja A. Wilhelm Stanis, Christine Jie Li, Mark Morgan, Damon M. Hall, Elisabeth B. Webb

Faculty Publications

The endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is negatively affected by lead poisoning from spent lead‐based hunting ammunition. Because lead poisoning is the primary mortality factor affecting condors, the California Fish and Game Commission banned lead hunting ammunition during 2008 in the southern California condor range followed by a statewide ban implemented in 2019. In contrast, the Arizona Game and Fish Department instituted an outreach and awareness program encouraging voluntary use of nonlead hunting ammunition in the northern portion of the state during 2005 and a similar program was launched in Utah during 2012. The juxtaposition of policy tools provided a …

The Influence Of Policy Implementation In The Midwest: How A Sstem Program Broadens Participation And Enhances Engineering Identity For Community College Students, Sarah L. Rodriguez, Maria L. Espino, Brian D. Le, Kelly J. Cunniham

Faculty Publications

This qualitative research study describes how a Midwest community college’s implementation of an Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SSTEM) program influences engineering identity development for its students with financial need. Using a phenomenological approach, the study finds that the program enables community college students to have greater financial freedom and an ability to focus on engineering identity. In addition, the SSTEM program enhances student connections with STEM faculty, program staff, and peers. The study highlights the need for creating spaces for engineering identity development, developing connections between faculty, staff, and students, and enhancing transfer connections through different experiences. …

Declining Bacteria, Lead, And Sulphate, And Rising Ph And Oxygen In The Lower Mississippi River, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

Various air and water pollution issues in the US were confronted in the last 60 years using national policy legislation, notably the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. I examine changes in the concentrations of bacteria, oxygen, lead, and sulphate at the terminus of the Mississippi River before and after these pollution abatement efforts. Microbial concentrations increased or were stable from 1909 to 1980 but decreased about 3 orders of magnitude after the 1970s, while the average oxygen content increased. A large decline in lead concentration occurred after the 1960s, along with a less dramatic decline in sulphate …

Social, Economic, And Political Events Affect Gender Equity In China, Nepal, And Nicaragua: A Matched, Interrupted Time-Series Study, Tuan T. Nguyen, Ashley Darnell, Amy Weissman, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Roger Mathisen, Karin Lapping, Timothy D. Mastro, Mellissa Withers

Faculty Publications

: Progress in gender equity can improve health at the individual and country levels.: This study's objective was to analyze recent trends in gender equity and identify historical and contextual factors that contributed to changes in gender equity in three countries: China, Nepal, and Nicaragua.: To assess gender equity trends, we used the Gender Gap Index (GGI) from the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report (2006-2017). The GGI incorporated data on economic participation, educational attainment, health, and political empowerment for almost 150 countries. We selected China, Nepal, and Nicaragua because of their major changes in GGI and diversity in …

Bias And Misrepresentation Of Science Undermines Productive Discourse On Animal Welfare Policy: A Case Study, Kelly Jaakkola, Jason N. Bruck, Richard C. Connor, Stephen H. Montgomery, Stephanie L. King

Faculty Publications

Reliable scientific knowledge is crucial for informing legislative, regulatory, and policy decisions in a variety of areas. To that end, scientific reviews of topical issues can be invaluable tools for informing productive discourse and decision-making, assuming these reviews represent the target body of scientific knowledge as completely, accurately, and objectively as possible. Unfortunately, not all reviews live up to this standard. As a case in point, Marino et al.’s review regarding the welfare of killer whales in captivity contains methodological flaws and misrepresentations of the scientific literature, including problematic referencing, overinterpretation of the data, misleading word choice, and biased argumentation. …

Conservation Adoption Among Owners And Tenantfarmers In The Southern United States, Naveen Adusumilli, Hua Wang

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This study investigates owner and tenant characteristics and differences between these two groups in their participation in federal conservation initiatives. Bivariate probit model analysis, based on a 2016–2017 Louisiana row-crop producer’s survey show that owners, relative to tenant farmers, are more likely to adopt conservation in early years of ownership. The results emphasize the need for mechanisms for tenants in short-term contracts to invest in long-term conservation. Moreover, conservation initiatives should be tailored, as tenant farmers are increasingly farming more land and policies should carefully account for this growing group of …

Delineating Victims From Perpetrators: Prosecuting Self-Produced Child Pornography In Youth Criminal Justice Systems, Bryce Westlake

Faculty Publications

Video recording technology advancements and accessibility has been paralleled by a growth in self-produced child pornography (SPCP). Although social and judicial attention has been given to instances of teenage sexting, Internet-based forms of SPCP, such as webcam/website sex tourism, have almost been ignored. While some of the proposed legislation reform has referenced video-based SPCP, the majority has focused on SPCP distributed through cellular phones; excluding that which is manifested online or through entrepreneurial efforts. The purpose of this article is to introduce non-sexting SPCP, using the case study of Justin Berry (in the United States), and to propose a broad …

Barriers And Facilitators To Compliance With A State Healthy Eating Policy In Early Care And Education Centers, Daniel A. Zaltz, Russell R. Pate, Jennifer R. O'Neill, Brian Neelon, Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon

Faculty Publications

Background: Early care and education (ECE) policies can improve childhood obesity risk factors. We evaluated barriers and facilitators to implementing mandatory nutrition standards for foods provided in South Carolina ECE centers serving lowincome children, comparing centers participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) with non-CACFP centers.

Methods: We mailed 261 surveys (demographics, policies and practices, barriers and facilitators) to center directors after new state nutrition standards were implemented in South Carolina. We conducted univariate and bivariate analyses to explore relationships between barriers, facilitators, and center-level characteristics, by CACFP status.

Results: We received 163 surveys (62% response rate). …

Crashworthiness: The Collision Of Sellers' Responsibility For Product Safety With Comparative Fault, F. Patrick Hubbard, Evan Sobocinski

Faculty Publications

Crashworthiness cases often involve the following issue: Should any wrongdoing by the plaintiff in causing the initial collision reduce or bar the plaintiff’s recovery for defective crashworthiness? Jurisdictions disagree on the answer to this issue. This disagreement results in large part from differing positions on two questions. First, should products liability law use duty rules to impose liability in a way that ensures efficient accident cost reduction or should it seek fairness through relatively unstructured jury allocations of liability based on fault? Second, in addressing the first issue, should for-profit corporations be viewed as: (1) “tools” to achieve human goals …

Social Entrepreneurship In China: Driving Institutional Change, Tonia Warnecke

Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the concern with exclusionary and unethical business practices has led to the growing popularity of social entrepreneurship, which focuses on the creation of social value, not wealth. In this article, I reflect on social entrepreneurship in China, a unique context given the strong Communist party leadership and the transition to a market economy. To begin, I discuss the legal and political framework for social entrepreneurship in China, followed by an overview of the sector’s characteristics, including age, size, social issues emphasized, leader characteristics, and the role of women. Next, I provide examples of …

Defining The Opioid Epidemic: Congress, Pressure Groups, And Problem Definition, Taleed El-Sabawi

Faculty Publications

The passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 evidences a shift in federal legislative support from criminal justice oriented legislative alternatives to more health oriented legislative alternatives to addressing the ongoing Opioid Epidemic. Such a shift was preceded by a redefinition of problem drug use in the policy discourse from an issue of deviancy to a health issue. However, the redefinition of problem drug use as a health issue, has been dominated by policy narratives and causal stories that do not define problem drug use in a manner that aligns with a multi-modal public health oriented legislative …

The Law Of Social Entrepreneurship – Creating Shared Value Through The Lens Of Sandra Day O’Connor’S Icivics, Anat Alon-Beck

Faculty Publications

This article calls for harmonizing state law legislation on social enterprises, due to the potential discrepancy between the various states on the nature and legal structure of social enterprises. Since 2008, legislators in thirty-five (35) states across the United States of America and the District of Columbia, have enacted some form of innovative social enterprise legislation. This new revolution in corporate law is called social entrepreneurship, mirroring social movements in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Public opinion has led to a shift in prevalent corporate governance theory, from current share-holder centric corporate governance to collaborative corporate governance. A …

Identifying United States And Territory Education Requirements For Childhood Vaccination Exemptions, Lacey M. Eden, Emily G. Dunn, Karlen E. Luthy, Katelyn Wells, Janelle L. B. Macintosh, Renea Beckstrand

Faculty Publications

Background: : Children are required by law to receive vaccinations to enter school. States and territories offer exemptions for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. Types of exemptions vary by state or territory, as does the exemption filing process. The purpose of this research was to identify the various education-related processes implemented by states and territories which allow parents to exempt children from vaccinations.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to immunization program managers in the 50 United States, District of Columbia, the United States Indian Health Service, and eight United States territories. Managers reported vaccination requirements for their jurisdiction …

The Coalition Model, A Private-Public Strategic Innovation Policy Model For Encouraging Entrepreneurship And Economic Growth In The Era Of New Economic Challenges, Anat Alon-Beck

Faculty Publications

Innovation driven entrepreneurial firms have an important role in contributing to job creation, to generating technological innovation and to stimulating the United States economy. However, there is a notable recent decline in emerging growth entrepreneurial activity in the United States. The Coalition Model proposes ways to maximize opportunities for industry, academia and government to collaborate and build sustainable relationships, in order to help convert the current challenges in the U.S. market into opportunities.

Designing a new innovation strategy policy will lead the United States in generating innovation, technology and economic growth, as well as help the federal government harness new …

Navigating The Waters Of Accreditation: Best Practices, Challenges, And Lessons Learned From One Institution, Tracey Covington Hasbun, Amanda M. Rudolph

Faculty Publications

In higher education, as many as 50% of educator preparation programs (EPPs) look to a national accreditation agency as one way to provide evidence of the rigor and quality of their programs. Although a large number of EPPs find value in the self-study and external review that come with the national accreditation process, the process itself can be daunting and time-consuming. Many look to the literature or to the accreditation experiences provided by other institutions as a means to assist their own accreditation journey. The purpose of this article is to discuss one regional, comprehensive EPP’s experiences with national accreditation, …

The Fall Of Fertility: How Same-Sex Marriage Will Further Declining Birthrates In The United States, Jason S. Carroll, Walter Schumm

Faculty Publications

The current debate over the definition of marriage is typically portrayed as a decision to "expand" or "extend" the boundaries of marriage to include same-sex couples. This argument, however, rests on the assumption that the basic nature off marriage will remain largely unchanged by granting marriage status to same-sex partnerships and that all this policy change will do is absorb same-se partnerships within the existing boundaries of marriage and emend the benefits of marriage to a wider segment of society. Indeed, the very term "same-sex marriage" implies that same-sex couples in committed relationships are already a type of marriage that …

Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard Wasserman

Faculty Publications

This Commentary uses the lens of "moral panics" to evaluate public support for equipping law enforcement with body cameras as a response and solution to events in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. Body cameras are a generally good policy idea. But the rhetoric surrounding them erroneously treats them as the single guaranteed solution to the problem of excessive force and police-citizen conflicts, particularly by ignoring the limitations of video evidence and the difficult questions of implementing the body camera program. In overstating the case, the rhetoric of body cameras becomes indistinguishable from rhetoric surrounding responses to past moral panics.

Extralegal Supreme Court Policy Making, Joelle A. Moreno

Faculty Publications

The Colbert Report aired its final episode on December 18, 2014. Nine years earlier, on the first episode, Stephen Colbert coined the word “truthiness.” Truthiness satirized contemporary disinterest in empirical information in a country increasingly "divided between those who think with their head and those who know with their heart.” Truthiness was not just the Merriam-Webster word of the year. Over the past decade, it has been the unspoken mantra of reporters who give equal time to climate science denialists, faith healers, and vaccine refusers. When Justices of the Supreme Court decide questions of scientific or empirical fact — such …

Vaccination Perceptions Of School Employees In A Rural School District, Janelle Macintosh, Karlen E. (Beth) Luthy, Renea L. Beckstrand, Lacey M. Eden, Jennifer Orton

Faculty Publications

Background: There continues to be a need for increases in adult vaccination rates, especially among those working in environments which may easily become communicable disease outbreak centers, such as school employees in the school environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate why rural Utah school employees were non-compliant with the influenza and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines, as well as to identify their views on mandatory vaccination policies.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to all school employees in a rural Utah school district. Data analysis included frequencies and measures of central tendency and dispersion for quantitative items …

Vaccination Perceptions Of School Employees In A Rural School District, Janelle L. B. Macintosh

Faculty Publications

Background: There continues to be a need for increases in adult vaccination rates, especially among those working in environments which may easily become communicable disease outbreak centers, such as school employees in the school environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate why rural Utah school employees were non-compliant with the influenza and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines, as well as to identify their view on mandatory vaccination policies.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to all school employees in a rural Utah school district. Data analysis included frequencies and measures of central tendency and dispersion for quantitative items …

Study Of Health And Activity In Preschool Environments (Shapes): Study Protocol For A Randomized Trial Evaluating A Multi-Component Physical Activity Intervention In Preschool Children, Karin A. Pfeiffer, Ruth P. Saunders, William H. Brown, Marsha Dowda, Cheryl L. Addy, Russell R. Pate

Faculty Publications

Background: Physical inactivity is a recognized public health concern. Inadequate proportions of children in the U.S, including those of preschool age, are meeting physical activity recommendations. In response to low numbers of preschool children attaining appropriate physical activity levels, combined with the large number of young children who attend preschool, researchers have identified the need to devise interventions to increase physical activity at preschools. However, few multi-component interventions to increase physical activity in preschool children exist. The aims of this study were to observe the effects of a multi-component intervention on physical activity, sedentary behavior, and physical activity energy expenditure …

Teaching Access, Or Freedom Of Information Law, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

Based on the author's experience developing and administering the course and materials, this article provides an introduction and resources to teach a graduate journalism or professional law school course on access to government, commonly called "freedom of information law", which may be constructed as a capstone course in law school. The appendices provide supporting material and references.

Understanding Resistance To Standardization In Education: The Tragedy Of The Commons As A Theoretical Framework, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to articulate how a theory, developed in 1968 by Garrett Hardin to describe how shared resources, or “commons” can become depleted, also elucidates the mechanism by which standardization of educational outcomes and assessment have come to dominate current education discourse. We then present results of a case study of a school struggling to succeed within a context of a district’s hyper-focus on standardized measures of success, and employ the theory to illustrate its usefulness to explain what we found at the school site. We believe this theoretical framework provides interesting perspectives on current trends …

Teachers As Language-Policy Actors: Contending With The Erasure Of Lesser-Used Languages In Schools, Kara Brown

Faculty Publications

On the basis of an ethnographic study of the Võro-language revitalization in Estonia, this article explores the way teachers function as policy actors in the broader context of the school. As policy actors, the language teachers' appropriation of regional–language policy helps simultaneously to reproduce and challenge existing ideologies in the school environment. I explore the teachers' understandings of their power and freedom to inform their navigation of the circumscribed choices offered in a post-Soviet educational system. [language, anthropology of policy, teachers, Baltic]

The Sounds Of Silence: American Criminal Justice Policy In Election Year 2008, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

One of the striking features of the 2008 election cycle has been the absence of crime as a national political issue. Nobody has declared metaphorical war on any type of crime, run an ad about the depredations of a parolee, or even promised 100,000 cops. It may simply be that for a country embroiled in two nonmetaphorical foreign wars and deeply nervous about the state of the economy, crime is a second-order concern. It could be that the big drop in crime of all types throughout the 1990s has made the issue seem less pressing. Whatever the explanation, things are …

Anti-Conservation Incentives, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Several recent empirical studies have indicated that the Endangered Specifies Act (ESA) discourages species conservation on private land. This is because the law encourages landowners to shoot, shovel and shut up before federal authorities discover the species are present or may move onto the land. Most worrisome, the studies suggest that the net effect of the ESA on private land could be negative. Habitat loss and fragmentation represent the greatest threat to endangered species because private land is indispensable to environmental conservation.

Will Legislation To Encourage Premarital Education Strengthen Marriage And Reduce Divorce?, Alan J. Hawkins

Faculty Publications

Many legislators are wondering whether there is a constructive role that government can play to strengthen marriages and reduce divorces. A handful of states have passed legislation providing incentives for couples to participate in formal premarital education. The purpose of this article is to examine the research that can help answer the question whether legislation to promote premarital education can strengthen marriages and reduce the divorce rate. Of course, there are numerous legal and policy issues related to marriage and divorce being discussed these days. The focus of this article however, is only on one. In the end, I conclude …

When Policy Meets Practice: The Untested Effects Of Permanency Reforms In Child Welfare, Amy D’Andrade, J Berrick

Faculty Publications

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (P.L. 105-89; ASFA) passed into federal law in 1997. ASFA emphasized child protection over family preservation, and introduced reforms intended to increase the likelihood and the speed with which children in the child welfare system attain a permanent home. This article details two provisions of the law, concurrent planning and reunification exception, and explores challenges in their implementation. These provisions have the potential to shift the nature of how child welfare services are delivered, and which families will receive them. An examination of implementation in the state of California suggests there is a need …

Community Partnerships For Older Adults: A Case Study, Elise J. Bolda Phd, Jane I. Lowe, George L. Maddox, Beverly S. Patnaik

Faculty Publications

Over the past several decades, federal policy has made states and communities increasingly more responsible for providing long-term care for older adults. The Community Partnerships for Older Adults, a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, saw this as an opportunity to explore new, sustainable ways to meet current and future needs for community-based long-term care. This initiative focuses on collaborative organizational partnerships, a distinctive philosophy of teaching and learning through the exchange of experience between communities, and program learning focusing on known factors promoting organizational sustainability. Using principles that emphasize the development of social capital and collective efficacy, …