Digital Commons Network^™

Abortion Policy Opinions: Results From 2022 And 2024 Election Day Exit Polls, Mariliz Kastberg-Leonard

Missouri Policy Journal

Missouri has approached abortion policy in a post-Dobbs world, in an interesting way. As one of the states with a trigger law in effect, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973), abortions were banned in Missouri except in very few cases. Just two years later, a constitutional amendment, Amendment 3, was added to the 2024 general election ballot to restore the right to abortion. This paper explores the results of two exit polls administered on Election Day 2022 and 2024, asking voters in Maryville, Missouri, their opinions about abortion. The results show Maryville voters support abortion protections, in …

Framing Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education: A Narrative Policy Analysis Study Of Higher Education Institutions With Particular Reference To Missouri, Taylor D. Corlee

Missouri Policy Journal

This study examines how higher education institutions narratively frame students’ use of artificial intelligence through policy-related documents, focusing on how these stories shape AI policy and how they can guide Missouri-based research. Using the Narrative Policy Framework and directed content analysis, 59 documents from 12 US public universities were coded for characters, plots, and morals and analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and difference-of-means tests. Findings reveal that institutions frame AI policy through narratives that cast faculty as guides, students as both capable and vulnerable, and AI as both tools and threat. For Missouri, recognizing how narratives shape AI governance …

Applying Andragogy In The Legal Field: Implications For Missouri Trial Courts, Grant Shostak, Somanita Kheang

Missouri Policy Journal

Adults involved in legal proceedings—such as jurors, attorneys, and judges—engage in cognitive and emotionally demanding learning processes. However, little research has examined how principles of adult learning theory are applied within the legal system. This article examines the potential of andragogy to inform and enhance the justice system, and improve juror efficacy in Missouri trial courts. Drawing on interdisciplinary research from both adult education and legal studies, this article demonstrates how andragogical principles can be used to support juror comprehension and efficacy, thereby leading to more fair outcomes. The findings reframe trial judges as facilitators of adult learning, highlighting opportunities …

Missouri Policy Journal -Volume 2, Issue 3 (2026) -Full Issue

Missouri Policy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Last Human Question: Generative Ai's Existential Threat To Consensus And Law, Joshua Fairfield

West Virginia Law Review

The true risk of artificial intelligence (“AI”) is not that the toasters will rise up. It is that AI will be competent to perform human tasks and indifferent to human welfare. The risk is that we will be outcompeted by generative automated processes that create output similar to ours (although never the same, as this Article explains), but which need none of the outputs of the economy for food, shelter, or human flourishing. Further, a more precise and existential description of the threat is that generative AI will disrupt and crowd out humanity’s evolutionary superpower, our ability to generate agreement …

Ai And Law Milestones: From Top-Down To Bottom-Up Computational Models Of Legal Reasoning (And Back), Kevin Ashley

West Virginia Law Review

This Article introduces five research and development milestones in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Law and then discusses how large language models (“LLMs”) and generative AI (“GenAI”) are affecting each of them. The milestones include legal expert systems, lessons learned in computationally modeling legal rules and statutes, knowledge-based models of legal argument, machine learning models that classify case texts and predict outcomes, and the design and evaluation of legal applications of LLMs and GenAI. These milestones illustrate how top-down knowledge-based computational models of legal expertise have rapidly given way to bottom-up models based on machine learning. Knowledge-based models explicitly …

A View Under The Hood: Duquesne Kline's Law And Computing Program, Wesley M. Oliver, Katherine L.W. Norton, Martin Mckown, David Horrigan

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Training New Lawyers With And For Generative Ai: A Semester-Long Experiment Scaling Clinical Friction In The Doctrinal Classroom, Frank W. Volk

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Did We Get Here? The Rise Of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric As A Sociopolitical Force In U.S. Immigration Discourse And Enforcement Policy Through A Latino Lens, Andrea Maldonado

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Augmented Advocacy: Ethical Constraints And Regulatory Gaps In Ai-Driven Legal Practice, Molly M. Rowlands

West Virginia Law Review

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and particularly generative AI (“Gen AI”) is reshaping the legal profession in unprecedented ways. AI-powered tools enhance efficiency, improve accuracy in legal analysis, and expand access to justice by automating research, contract review, litigation support, and predictive analytics. However, these benefits come with significant ethical, regulatory, and procedural challenges, including competency concerns and AI “hallucinations,” data confidentiality risks, algorithmic bias, and the environmental impact of AI-driven computing. This Note critically examines the evolving role of AI in legal practice and evaluates the inadequacies of existing regulatory frameworks—such as Rule 11 of the Federal …

Forever Young: Student Employee Unionization In Higher Education, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This article presents history and data about unionization among graduate and undergraduate student employees in the United States. It demonstrates that student employee unionization is not a new phenomenon and is part of a second curriculum for higher education students, which provides first-hand experience in workplace representational democracy and citizenship, including maintaining a majority coalition and making hard necessary compromises

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Will Deepen The Farm Crisis, Not Solve It, Rebecca Schewe, Rick Welsh

Center for Policy Research

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) promises billions in new farm subsidies, but most of that money won’t go to the farmers who need it most. This brief describes how the OBBB’s changes to agricultural subsidy programs will disproportionately benefit large farms and non-farming investors, accelerating farm loss and consolidation across the United States. The authors argue that without reforms, the OBBB will inflate land values, raise barriers for new and small farmers, and further fuel absentee farmland investment. The authors also identify four reforms policymakers should enact to prevent these devastating consequences, including tightening payment limits and closing loopholes, …

The Energy And Environmental Footprint Of Ai, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Ethan I. Thorpe, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to create major economic and social benefits, but also to rapidly escalate electricity demand and its associated environmental impacts. Information availability has been a cornerstone of environmental law for half a century, and this Article argues that providing information to individual, corporate, and other users about the electricity demand and environmental impacts of AI can reduce those impacts without delaying development of the technology. Little is known about how different large language models (LLMs) compare on these metrics, though. To address whether users have access to the information necessary to address this shortcoming, the …

Property Taxes And Educational Inequality: How Funding Structures Perpetuate Social Class Divides In San Antonio, Texas, Kristanna Martinez, Camila Ore

Posters - 2026

The U.S education system relies heavily on property taxes, creating an unhealthy dependence where property value dictates the quality of education depending on the school district

• In the historical case Edgewood v. Kriby, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the reliance on local property taxes for school funding was unconstitutional, as it violated the state requirement that all children receive a “thorough and efficient” education. The court ruled that every district must be provided the same ability to obtain educational funds regardless of their local property wealth. • The purpose of this study is to examine if the 2025-2026 …

The Cost Of Affordable Healthcare: How Brazil's Sus And Generic Drug Strtegy Produce Structural Inequality And Challenge Global Pharmaceutical Rules, Elena Kössler

Posters - 2026

Affordable healthcare is often seen as a major social achievement, but maintaining low costs involves important trade-offs. Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) provides universal healthcare and relies heavily on generic medicines to expand access. This raises a central question: how can a system reduce the cost of healthcare while simultaneously generating new forms of inequality and tension within global pharmaceutical markets? This paper argues that Brazil’s cost-reduction strategy, particularly its reliance on generic medicines, improves affordability but also produces structural trade-offs between equitable access, quality of care, and incentives for pharmaceutical innovation.

Armed Conflict: Addressing Violations Against Children's Human Rights, Noelia Torres Guillen

Posters - 2026

• Research question: How has armed conflict violated children's human rights, and how have international legal frameworks been effective in addressing these violations?

• The CRC sets the standard international definition, which defines a child as every human being below the age of eighteen years

• There are six grave violations: Killing and maiming of children, the recruitment or use of children as soldiers, sexual violence, abduction, attacks against schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access for children.

• Argument (thesis): Although there are several legal instruments implemented to protect children's human rights during armed conflict, children are still …

Economic Security & Older Adults In Massachusetts: Infographic, Center For Social And Demographic Research On Aging, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The Elder Index measures the income older adults need to meet their daily living costs while staying in their own homes. This fact sheet presents overview data of economic security of Older Adults in Massachusetts based on the 2025 Elder Index data.

A Comparative Analysis Of State Legislation Prohibiting Gender-Affirming Care For Missouri Minors: A Policy Review, Hayley Lange, Benjamin Grin, Kaitlyn Crosby

Missouri Policy Journal

The Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act is a law enacted in August 2023 that banned gender-affirming medical care for individuals under 18 in Missouri. It states that any medical provider who provides medical gender-affirming care to a minor will have their professional medical license revoked. The purpose of this policy review is to evaluate and compare the content of the Missouri SAFE Act with similar legislation enacted in other states to provide an evaluative model.        

This policy assessment used a modified assessment tool that was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The assessment included a …

Fear, Parties, And The 2024 General Election: A Review Of Exit Poll Information From Missouri Voters, Jacob H. Tengelsen, Bronson P. Herrera

Missouri Policy Journal

Increased emotions mark current elections. Particularly, election-related anxiety has risen over the years, causing health and social concerns. Despite studying the risks of election-related fear, researchers have yet to delve into the existing partisan contrasts. We hypothesize that there will be a partisan difference in levels of fear in the 2024 election. We rely on exit poll data collected by the Northwest Center of Policy and Civic Engagement. We find more increased levels of fear among Democrats about the election of Donald Trump than we do among Republicans about the prospect of a Kamala Harris presidency. We reflect on the …

Editor’S Introduction, Joseph A. Cernik

Missouri Policy Journal

No abstract provided.

Next-Generation Democratic Cyber Statecraft - Balancing The Signal: Shutdown Shocks And Democratic Digital Governance, Scott M. Di Panni

School of Public Policy Capstones

This paper develops Next-Generation Democratic Cyber Statecraft (NG-DCS), a unified strategic doctrine for democratic governments to contest the cognitive domain against authoritarian adversaries. Drawing on twenty-six years of cross-national panel data (1999–2024) spanning 213 countries, game-theoretic modeling, and qualitative case analysis, the paper establishes three interconnected empirical and theoretical foundations. First, cross-national OLS regression across 160+ countries demonstrates that regime type is the dominant structural determinant of internet freedom (R²=0.615, β=2.513, p< 0.001), explaining more than twice the variance attributable to per-capita wealth (R²=0.268). Democratic governance, not economic development, produces open digital environments. Second, a two-way fixed effects (TWFE) difference-in-differences study exploiting government-ordered internet shutdowns as discrete policy interventions finds that digital restrictions causally degrade V-Dem governance quality by 0.21–0.38 standard deviations (p< 0.001 across all specifications). Treatment effects are immediate (β=−0.302 at k=0) and persist through five post-treatment years (β=−0.246 at k=+5), indicating structural rather than transitory governance damage. Parallel trends validation (p=0.352) and Callaway–Sant’Anna heterogeneity-robust estimation (ATT=−0.230, SE=0.077) support causal identification. Instrumental variable triangulation (2SLS β=−0.949, p=0.005) confirms that simultaneity was attenuating, not inflating, the primary estimates. Third, formal game-theoretic analysis reveals that the current U.S.–adversary equilibrium is (Restrain, Escalate)—the risk-dominant but Pareto-inferior outcome of a Stag Hunt structure. China, Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela each occupy structurally distinct positions (Stackelberg commitment, asymmetric two-level, autarky, and reactive trigger, respectively), requiring differentiated doctrinal responses rather than a uniform strategic playbook. Generative AI and algorithmic governance are shown to accelerate cognitive vulnerability by collapsing influence operation costs and exploiting engagement-optimized platform architectures that systematically degrade deliberative capacity in democratic populations.

Fisheries Management Paper No.312: Discussion Paper On Management And Licensing Options For The Charter Industry - Statewide Strategic Review Of Western Australia’S Charter Fishing Sector, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Management Papers

This consultation paper has been prepared to support the statewide strategic review of Western Australia’s (WA) charter fishing sector, which was initiated as a government commitment.

The paper details issues and proposals relating to the management and licensing framework, development opportunities and representation model for the charter fishing industry. The proposals have been developed in consultation with the Charter Review Working Group. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) now seeks comment from relevant stakeholders on the issues and proposals outlined within this paper.

Comments provided will assist in providing advice and recommendations to the Minister for Fisheries …

The Missed Mark, Grace Hill

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The Missed Mark

This project is a collective literary analysis of the current research conducted on the efficacy of current political campaigns. This collection of works aims to identify methodologies that increase message salience among American constituents and promote civic engagement.

Based on the collected data on citizens' perceptions of trust and relatability regarding candidates' platforms and personas, recommendations for more effectively appealing to these values become clearer and more precise. Collected data suggest members of the community feel ostracized by the impersonal copy-and-paste model often adopted by modern political campaigns. (S. Erdem Aytaç, Susan C. Stokes. 2019) Instead of …

The Necessity Of U.S. Aid: The Russian-Ukrainian War, Lelin Spriggs

The Dialogue

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the conflict has emerged as a defining foreign-policy challenge of the twenty-first century. In the United States, the war dominates political discourse and continues to shape debates on national security and the appropriate scope of American global leadership. Although President Trump vowed during his campaign to end the war upon entering office, hostilities intensified following his inauguration, prompting renewed policy debates regarding the future and extent of U.S. military and economic support for Kyiv.

This paper argues that the United States must continue providing sustained military and economic …

Pastoral Listening Skills Training In The Black Baptist Church: Equipping Clergy To Better Support Congregants, Regina Pair Allen

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

This study engages a historical survey of qualitative studies of perspectives of Black pastors regarding pastoral care, examining various avenues for training in pastoral listening and the role of ministers as theological clinicians in supporting church ministries and community needs. The findings highlight the ongoing need for professional development among pastors as primary educators and theological clinicians. The study underscores the importance of equipping Black Baptist pastors to address the clinical pastoral needs of African American congregants. The significance to this field of study is providing Black Baptist clergy with practical skills and tools, grounded in theological principles, to better …

Beyond The Individual: Exploring Structural Explanations Of Homelessness Through Thematic Analysis Of Extant Research, Madison R. Mcclain

Senior Theses

This thesis examines how homelessness is defined, explained, and addressed within contemporary U.S. research using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Intersectionality as guiding frameworks. Through a qualitative, deductive thematic analysis of 16 peer-reviewed articles, this study identifies six key themes related to structural causation, policy governance, measurement practices, racial inequality, dominant narratives, and intersecting systems of disadvantage. Findings reveal that while structural explanations of homelessness are widely acknowledged, they are inconsistently defined and often insufficiently theorized. Institutional systems primarily function to manage rather than resolve homelessness, while measurement practices and definitions actively shape who is recognized and prioritized. Additionally, structural …

Nh Ece Research Consortium 2025 Activity Timeline, Jess Carson, Evan England

New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium

The New Hampshire Early Care and Education (NH ECE) Research Consortium is a network of researchers and research users committed to strengthening the state's ECE landscape through the use of data. Discover what Consortium staff accomplished throughout 2025 in this 2025 Activity Timeline.

Status Of New Hampshire Public School-Affiliated Preschool Programs: 2024-2025 School Year Infographic, Tyrus Parker, Kamala Nasirova, Jess Carson

New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium

This infographic describes findings from the second annual census of New Hampshire elementary schools conducted by the Carsey School of Public Policy to identify preschool programs implemented by school districts. These data reflect the 2024-2025 school year.

Gamification And Serious Games In Undergraduate Nursing Education For Disaster Preparedness In The United States, Jacob Fast

Dissertations

Disaster preparedness is a critical component of undergraduate nursing education, yet traditional instructional approaches often inadequately prepare students for the complexity and uncertainty of real-world emergencies. Emerging literature suggests that gamification and serious games may enhance engagement and applied learning; however, limited research has examined their integration within nursing curricula from the perspective of faculty responsible for instructional design. This convergent mixed-methods study investigated the extent of integration, perceived effectiveness, and practical utility of gamification and serious games in undergraduate nursing education for disaster preparedness. Quantitative data were collected through a national survey of faculty teaching in CCNE- and ACEN-accredited …

Nh Ece Data Collection Efforts Running Inventory, Jess Carson, Evan England, Tyrus Parker

New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium

Updated April 2026!

The NH ECE Research Consortium maintains an inventory of current and complete NH ECE-relevant data collection efforts. Included are surveys, interviews, focus groups, needs assessments, and other ways people in the field collect information. The inventory strengthens public access for data users, improves awareness and coordination among researchers, and minimizes duplication.