Digital Commons Network^™

The Opioid Crisis Meets Covid-19 Pandemic, Hannah M. Westerman

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Abstract: How have the COVID-19 pandemic and the Opioid Crisis have collided to create a negative effect on those who abuse drugs and other substances? These two wicked problems are now collectively making it more difficult for those to recover and overcome substance and drug abuse worsening the Opioid Epidemic. With no clear answer in sight can vaccines and more accessible rehab help to progress these wicked problems?

Looking Into The Effects Of The Age Of The Internet, Sarah Schaefer

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The internet has grown to play a large part in our society in the past couple decades, but with the rapid change in technology we have been ill prepared for the effects of our reliance on digital content. Looking into how different demographics and age groups are affected, we come to a conclusion that the general population needs to work to better educate themselves on the impact caused from an overuse of the internet.

Obesity: A Growing Concern In America, Julie T. Garrity

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The R-Word, Jocelyn Mckelvey, Jocelyn Mckelvey

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Racism cuts deep. In a recent study by Shardae McNeil, 87 and 94% of African Americans reported experiencing at least one discriminatory event by the time they reached adolescence. Her research indicates that those that experience racial discrimination during adolescence are vulnerable to a greater risk of lower psychological functioning, internalized symptoms, and elevated levels of depressive symptomology. McNeil introduces the component of family support. Family support is an important coping method for incidents such as racial discrimination and can bring a positive mental health outcome in adolescents.

Cancel The Behavior, Not The Person, Mckenna M. Wychunas

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

A wicked problem is one that is here to stay, no matter how many solutions are thought of. No matter the solution, it will always interfere with another wicked problem, leaving it in an endless cycle. Cancel culture will always exist, even if it becomes less intense, it will still be here. Though there are differing opinions on the topic of cancel culture, I have researched the negative side to canceling, and I have provided examples of real-life people that have been affected by it. Along with that, I have also given a variety of feasible solutions that could help …

Drug Addiction & Mental Health, Tyler Burkholder

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Drugs have a serious effect on our mental health, and mental health has a major effect on drug abuse and addiction. There is a reason so many drug users usually need to keep going back to rehab. It is because drugs affect mental health to a point where you aren’t the same person during and even after drug addiction. Poor mental health also can be a major cause influencing people to start doing drugs. People with depression, anxiety disorders, mood disorders are more prone to drug use. That is why we need to make it a public policy to screen …

The Enemy Of Writing: Standardized Testing, Catelynn Pasterchick

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

As the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Act of 2001 enforced frequent standardized testing, the US Department of Education established a curriculum centered around drilling test material to meet nationwide requirements. Consequently, students are still offered a limited education, encouraging skills like memorization and quick thinking to be reflected in their scores. Particularly in writing, these tests and timed assignments stifle creativity, as they leave little room for students to be thoughtful and critical in their responses. Standardized tests lead both teachers and students to forget the purpose of writing as a tool for authentic expression and individuality. Furthermore, the …

Guns And Their Place In The Us, Jacob Garibaldi

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Creating this paper was a wicked problem due to how deep of an issue the gun debate is in the United States. In the discussion of guns, there is a side that wants to abolish them, a side that believes in the right of the second amendment, and a middle ground where we can have guns in society with added in legal measures. Surely enough, those that are in opposition to firearms are persuaded due to the acts of violence and crime committed with them. Then there are those that use them in a way of self-defense. Through this paper, …

College Students And Burnout, Alexandra Malc

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

This article covers the topic such as burnout in an academic environment. Burnout is a common experience many students face throughout their four plus years in college, and it has serious ramifications. This is a serious issue that affects a student’s social life, academic life, and personal life. There is a severe lack of resources on campus, and the goal of this paper is to bring awareness to this. Students deserve to be heard and seen on their issues, and burnout is a huge one. This article also gives suggestions on how to heal from burnout, along with preventing it …

Save The Rich, Connor Harris

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The problem of medication pricing and lobbying in the healthcare industry has caused millions of people within the United States to not be able to afford medications essential to their lives. Pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of the need people have for certain drugs by setting the sale price far higher than it costs to produce. My suggested solution is to make lobbying illegal in the United States so that pharmaceutical companies would not have control over government officials who pass laws to help or hurt the issue of medication pricing. Illegalizing government lobbying will take away the incentive politicians …

Impact Of Whitetail Deer Overpopulation With Hunting On The Decline, Matthew J. Lamprinos

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The whitetail deer is a key species for Pennsylvania’s forests, but their ecological balance has been disturbed by unregulated growth and urban sprawl. The deer population in Pennsylvania has exploded since the 1880’s causing a wide range of damage on the ecosystem, and humans. To reduce deer populations to sustainable levels, the Pennsylvania Game Commission relies heavily on hunters to dedicate time in the fall to go out and fill the tags the they issue. Hunter participation all around the world is decreasing for a variety of reasons. Fewer hunters out in the field causes revenue losses for the Game …

The Struggle Of Mental Health Within College Students, Skyler R. West

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

One in five college students have thoughts of committing suicide daily. We often wonder what may lead to thoughts like this. This essay uses a subjective approach to broaden the knowledge of readers regarding mental health problems within college students. In this essay, readers discover the statistical findings of factors like alcohol, nicotine, schoolwork and athletics factoring into a student's psychological destressed mental state. Without having available and anonymous resources accessible to them, students are not able to get the help they need.

Mental Health In Music: Why Are We Not Talking About It?, Christian Pence

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The music business has taken many hits over the past 20 years, and we are seeing musicians slowly going extinct. There are so many factors that are hurting musicians, and workers in the music business. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, we were investing in music like no tomorrow. So many concerts were happening, and so many Broadway shows were going on. We were really supporting our musicians, and we were helping them in any way we could. But society, has not been investing in musicians, causing certain problems, like financial stability, mental health problems, and making music more of …

Physician Burnout: Stress Within The Health Care System, Aidan Hauser

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

As our nation’s healthcare system expands, more stress and responsibility are placed on our physicians and frontline healthcare workers. The pressures of the daily job often prove extremely damaging to the employee’s mental and physical health. Physician and worker burnout is a growing epidemic that is damaging our care providers more and more every day. Burnout effects not only workers, but all of those surrounding them as well. This plague is not going to be repaired by one single change, but it is clear that many adjustments must be made to reform our healthcare system.

Mental Health And Covid-19, Haley Thiel

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The recent pandemic has taken a toll on everyone’s mental health. Transitioning to full freedom and opportunity to lockdown with no human interaction was a huge adjustment. The global pandemic especially hit home to college students and had a significant impact on universities. In this paper we discuss and analyze how the pandemic has shifted college students mental health and the negative toll it had. We will examine how anxiety, depression, and other general mental health disorders have skyrocketed in college students during the pandemic. The need for reform and attention on college campuses to preserve students mental health is …

Police Body Cams Reducing Police Brutality, Shane M. Secrest

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

This paper shows 3 main reasons of how police worn body cameras being equipped on every single police officer in the country will be effective in reducing police brutality issues. The research is based of 3 sub points being officer, suspect and community safety, the educational value that can be gained from police worn body cameras, and how police worn body cameras can benefit the US court system. Each subpoint is broken down with how and why police worn body cameras would benefit each area.

Tuition Prices Are Through The Roof, Zara Zerman

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Tuition prices have increased at a rate that is making it difficult and impossible for students to not accumulate debt. Education is a necessity for society because it gives students opportunities to pursue any career they have interest or desire in. There are many discussions and conversations about the higher education system being too expensive but there have not been any changes or solutions to make college more affordable for students. Loans, federal aid, and other scholarships that help students with the cost of college will never be enough to help with the overwhelmingness of tuition prices and student debt. …

Lower Tuition, Eliminate Debts, And Enjoy Your Education, Damon Dejesus

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

College students live in a world where financial struggles and hardships take away from a lot of their freedoms after graduation. The ongoing student debt issues have crippled many of their freedoms and put limitations on the various luxuries they should be able to enjoy after completing the long journey of getting a degree. Through a few simple yet effective methods I think that there are ways to combat this wicked problem, things such as lowering the price of tuition, distributing more financial aid to students, and reducing the rate of interest attached to loans that some students may be …

Bridging The Gap, Jerenita Sokan

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Relationships are very important in our everyday life, especially in the medical field. Doctors tend to be the determining factor for many patients when it comes to life or death, and the patient requires a positive doctor patient relationship for many reasons. A good relationship is very important to foster trust thus creating a welcoming environment leading to more people taking steps to get help. However, when the doctor patient relationship is broken negative results are yield. Today the relationship between African American women and doctors is one that is broken and drifting further away from what is viewed as …

United States Judicial System Failures And Solutions, Braden P. Barker

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

For years, the American judicial system has unfairly punished the American people. These actions have led to serious societal consequences. We have prisons that sentence people to harsh punishment for nonviolent offenses, an overfunded and militarized police force, and racial biases that lead to the tragic killings of black people at the hands of the police that are intended to protect and serve us. This essay looks to diagnose the United States judicial system’s woes. More importantly, we take a look at what steps can be taken immediately to begin reversing the negative impact of these issues.

Student Debt Crisis, Celia Diloretto

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Student debt has been dated back to 1965 when the federal government began guaranteeing student loans. Today in 2021 student debt is now a crisis. Solutions have been trialed and errored when trying to forgive student debt, but no one solution seems to work right for students with outstanding debt today. Here are some of the effects student debt can cause and why debt needs to be prevented for future students.

Mindfulness: Solution For Stumbling Students, Kylee Zimmerman

Tutor's Column

Students who come to the Writing Center are often stressed, anxious, and very concerned about their essay’s health, even those who procrastinate. Learning to understand procrastination as a sign of stress rather than laziness betters us as tutors; this is done through developing mindfulness. Mindfulness can be applied to those struggling with procrastination by accepting the student’s stress and setting small goals. Mindfulness is defined as being aware of emotions without judgment. Procrastination is defined as submitting work inconsistently, ignoring homework, and denying feelings of stress.

Improving Global Flow With The Known-New Contract, Ben Ladner

Tutor's Column

Large-scale flow of ideas is the key to effective scientific and argumentative writing. This tutor’s column discusses the Known-New Contract as a teaching tool for global flow. It also discusses the outlining and discussion techniques that can be practically used in appointments with students who struggle with the structure of their papers.

The Ultimate Struggles Of A Classroom, Jackson R. Luneburg L

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Abstract: In a time where classrooms need more development as a whole to be more sustainable for kids that might have learning disabilities, We will look into universal design techniques that teachers could use to help children succeed in their environment. Having some sort of adaptability in the classroom is important for all students. By changing the ways we teach some tools teachers can use will be more comforting for the student with a learning disability to learn at quicker and faster paces. Design and having structure is very effective to student learning efficiency. Looking at new ways to innovate …

Infectious Liberty: Biopolitics Between Romanticism And Liberalism, Robert Mitchell

Literature

Infectious Liberty traces the origins of our contemporary concerns about public health, world population, climate change, global trade, and government regulation to a series of Romantic-era debates and their literary consequences. Through a series of careful readings, Robert Mitchell shows how a range of elements of modern literature, from character-systems to free indirect discourse, are closely intertwined with Romantic-era liberalism and biopolitics.

Eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century theorists of liberalism such as Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus drew upon the new sciences of population to develop a liberal biopolitics that aimed to coordinate differences among individuals by means of the culling …

Animal Texts: Critical Animal Concepts In Environmental Literature For The Anthropocene, Lauren Perry

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation examines how key environmental texts from the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries portray animals and the changing conception of animal lives. Beginning with short stories by Sarah Orne Jewett and Jack London, the first chapter examines how early environmentally-minded writers developed animals' independent subjectivity. The second chapter analyzes how Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac (1949) and Sarah Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) promote ecological awareness by paying attention to animal time. Chapter three argues that Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire (1968) develops a layered understanding of animal consciousness. Chapter four contends that Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge (1991) merges …

Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett

Scholars Week

This is an exploration of stereotypical and racist portrayals of minorities, specifically African-American, Latinx, and Native American communities, in film and television in the past and how that has affected representation in film adaptations of young adult literature. Young adult literature is one of the highest-selling genres in literature, purchased by both young adults and actual adults. In recent years, young adult literature has been adapted into film and television series and while representation has improved since the early years of entertainment history, there are still problems in the industry: many of the stereotypes remain, some minorities lack representation, and …

Keats And Shelley: A Pursuit Towards Progressivism, Serenah Minasian

Theses and Dissertations

An analyzation of the poems, letters, and works of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley from a perspective focusing on the history of sexuality, breaking gender binaries, and pushing towards progressivism. This thesis proves how John Keats is both an effeminate man who displays exemplary ways of breaking gender expectations but also a man who possess misogynistic tendencies. Also, this thesis analyzes Percy Shelley’s use of gender expectations and how he breaks them with the use of his characters. Studying these two British Romantics shows how these two cisgender, straight, white men provide an ability to push back on their …

U.S. Prisons And System Reform, Darian Reimels

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Prison systems, specifically in the U.S., are a wicked problem. For years prisoners have been treated inhumanely inside and outside of prison, with everyone looking at them with a judgmental eye. This essay aims to point out and bring light to these issues within the prison system. Specifically, it focuses on how inmates are treated during and after serving their sentence, and solitary confinement. To better understand and explain the problems to you, extensive research was done. Articles were read, organizations were researched, and a documentary was watched to gather the information needed to write this essay. The results showed …

Erasing Student Debt: Slowly But Surely, Roberta Harris

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Furthering your education intends to be the golden ticket when forming the basis of a successful life. Investing in college can have both positive and negative effects regarding where it leads a student in life. Positive aspects include increased job opportunities, higher salaries and wages, as well as a better quality of living. However, rising college costs bring debatable questions as to how students can become better equipped to face this path in life. In order to resolve the student debt crisis, there is need for educators to develop a better system in communicating financial literacy and life skills their …