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Factors That Impact Direct Democracy And Voter Turnout: Evidence From A National Study On American Counties, Michael Joseph Biesiada

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines factors that impact citizen initiatives and voter turnout. The dissertation contains two parts that build upon each other with fitting theoretical frameworks. The first part investigates the decision for a county government to permit citizen initiatives. This part applies new institutionalism theory as a framework to examine county governance, autonomy, and decision-making. County governments play a vital role in American politics, yet little is known about why some counties permit citizen initiatives while others do not. I address a gap in the literature that focuses on policy outcomes that vary at the county-level due to election laws. …

The Effectiveness Of State Ethics Commissions On Curbing Corruption And The Effect Of Corruption On State Economic Performance, Anthony J. Prato

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies implemented across the United States that significantly reduce public sector corruption. In addition to the normative desire to combat corruption, it documents, the economic impact that corruption has on each state's per capita gross domestic product. To investigate public sector corruption articles between the years 2010 – 2015were reviewed for news stories that report on public sector corruption at the state level and below. The practical implications of this dissertation, if incorporated into a state level anti-corruption policy, could be used to reduce public sector corruption and increase that states' economic health. …

Supranational Identity Politics: Sovereignism In The Eu, Emilio Jacintho

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The implementation of identity politics policies conceived at a supranational level appears to motivate the coordination of populist movements, the radicalization of their discourses, and an increasing resentment towards minority groups. I investigate the reaction of populist sovereignist political movements, among recently admitted EU member states, to the implementation of European Union policies that involve the positive discrimination of minority groups and mandated refugee relocations. The implementation of such policies seems to have contributed to the resentment toward policy-favored minorities, the increase of anti-immigration values, the success of extremist political expressions, and the mistrust of political institutions and traditional parties. …

A Framework To Capture Dynamic Traffic Trends From Historical Sensor Data, Carlos Gaviria

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The typical approach of increasing infrastructure to alleviate traffic issues such as congestion is becoming unviable due to limited space, high cost, and associated externalities. Control and management strategies using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) seek to maximize the use of existent infrastructure. Many ITS strategies, such as the deployment of information, require or benefit from knowledge about traffic patterns and trends. This study proposes a mathematical programming formulation and solution algorithm that considers multiple time intervals for the estimation of network-wide traffic states and calculation of the corresponding transition probabilities. The proposed solution enables the determination of sections of the …

Latino Youth Leadership Conference: Evaluation Of Program Success, Participant College Attendance And Completion, Christian Clapp, Gil Revolorio, Juman Sharif, Marjorie Stewart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Even after seeing increases in recent years, the Latinx community both nationwide and in Nevada are struggling to complete higher education. According to the American Community Survey, only 8% of Hispanics 25 years and older in Nevada have a Bachelor’s degree or higher educational attainment. Statistically, the Hispanic educational attainment rate is the lowest among the major racial categories. This is one of the main reasons the Latino Youth Leadership Conference was established.

The Latino Youth Leadership Conference was established in 1993 with goals of helping participants to pursue and complete higher education. Also the conference hopes to encourage participants …

Program Evaluation For Volunteers In Medicine Of Southern Nevada, Josephine Fenton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A program evaluation was conducted for Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada (“VMSN”), founded just over 10-years ago by a group of passionate and concerned citizens whose mission statement and goal is “to provide quality health care and support for people without access to health care in Southern Nevada within a culture of caring.” This report serves as the completed program evaluation for VMSN, and includes analytical findings and recommendations that VMSN may incorporate and develop into their organization to help further improve their services for the Southern Nevada community.

After careful review, it was determined that the scope of …

Volunteer Recruitment And Retention Evaluation For Volunteers In Medicine Of Southern Nevada, Chris Buchanan, David Corral, Gavin Whipple

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Student evaluation team, Efficient Evaluators (E2), conducted an evaluation of Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada (VMSN) from early 2018 until July 2018. This report serves as a guideline that provides thorough analytical results from literature review, benchmark studies, staff interviews and field observation and list of recommendations for VMSN to voluntarily adopt to improve volunteer recruitment and retention efforts.

The primary purpose of E2 is to provide Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada with both short and longer term recommendations, that if utilized could improve their current volunteer recruitment and retention efforts, benefitting the agency and community as a …

Having Or Serving: Perceptions Of Hsis, Rebecca Gates

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Despite substantial growth within the Latinx population and its access to higher education, there are still significant gaps with regard to degree attainment. In 2015, 36% of U.S. adults aged 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree. However, only 15% of those adults were Latinx, the lowest percentage amongst any racial/ethnic minority (NCES, 2016). While 67% of non-Hispanic White students entering four-year colleges complete their degree in six years, only 47% of Latinxs do so (Carey, 2009). These gaps represent an attainment disparity within higher education based upon population demographics. The purpose of this study was to address …

Family Promise Final Evaluation, Muriel Duval, Heather Ashley-Henderson, Patrick Becker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper will evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization, Family Promise of Las Vegas. This organization focuses on providing stable housing for homeless families in Southern Nevada.

The team of 3Masters used historical information on homelessness and the changes that have occurred in order to understand the current homeless situation. In addition, surveys were used to collect data from previous guests of Family Promise, congregation administrators, and volunteers for the organization. A benchmark study was conducted using similar Family Promise agencies to evaluate additional options for services. Finally, face-to-face interviews with employees were conducted and an on-site observation …

Assessing The Potential For A Backfire Effect On Citizen Perceptions: A Test Of Hot Spot Policing In Las Vegas, Steven Andrew Pace

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objects: In this dissertation, I explore whether the use of motorized police saturation patrol in high crime neighborhoods negatively impacts citizen perceptions of police activity, opinions about the police, and perceived safety level. This research focuses on evaluating

whether or not any backfire effects were attributed to the use of the hot spot policing tactic. Methods: I report on survey data from the Smart Policing Initiative (SPI), which entailed face-to face interviews in 12 hot spot neighborhoods (n=1,005) (6 paired locations) as part of an evaluation from the SPI on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Mobile Crime Saturation Team. …

Hearts And Minds: An Analysis Of Checks And Safeguards, Monitoring, And Performance Review Of Executive Boards And Their Executive Directors Within Select Nonprofit Corporations., John Michael Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Horror stories of ineffective nonprofit organization management arise in the media far too often. When these stories emerge, the public demands accountability from those responsible. Ultimately, accountability rests with the fiduciaries of the organization. For nonprofit

organizations in the United States, fiduciary responsibility and accountability reside with the board of directors.

Board governance has been widely studied in the for-profit sector. Due to the critical nature of the work nonprofits perform, there has been an increasing effort to study board governance in nonprofit organizations. Employing in depth interviews, with both executive

directors and board members, checks and safeguards such as …