Digital Commons Network^™

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, November 17, 2003, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Business
• Enrollment Management - Retention Survey
• Banner Progress Report
• Honors Program
• Parking Committee
• Cultural Activities Council
• Debriefing of the Faculty Forum
• UCFSL Letter

Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda, September 8, 2003, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Business
• EPC Annual Report
• UPRPC/Space Management Report
• Graduate Council Report
• Approval of Parliamentarian
• Policy Changes for Faculty Senate
• Honorary Degrees and Awards Nominations
• Proposed Changes to the Hiring Policy
• Senate Membership on Banner Committee

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, August 18, 2003, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Business
• EPC Annual Report
• UPRPC/Space Management
• Graduate Council Report
• Policy Changes for Faculty Senate
• Honorary Degrees and Awards resolution
• Term Appointments
• Proposed Changes to the Hiring Policy
• Senate Membership on the Banner Committee

Kula And The Trobriand Islands: The Meaning And Power Of Objects, Becky Tomlinson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Just as a word in a foreign language must be interpreted for one who does not speak the language, a cultural artifact alone holds no significance or meaning for an outsider. Thus, for an object to be understood it cannot stand alone, but must be placed in context though time and space, and various layers of cultural meaning must be expounded. The word lagim, from the Kiriwina language, may be roughly translated as meaning "the splashboard of a Kula canoe". This translation may give the proper words from English that denote the object, but it still leaves much to …

The Meaning Of "Being Single" For Mormon College-Age Single Adults, Jana Darrington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study researched the meaning of being single among 24 college-age adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e., Mormons). It examined influences on the construction of meanings of singlehood, gender patterns regarding the meaning of singlehood, and pressures on L.D.S. singles to date and marry.

The most important finding was that positive attitudes toward singlehood are more prevalent than negative or ambivalent attitudes. Families, as gate-keepers and transmitters of cultural information about singlehood and marriage, and the L.D.S. religion were the strongest influences on the development of meanings of singlehood. Families and religion mutually influence one …

Marital Happiness: Undergraduate University Students Assess Their Parents' Marriage Regarding Communication, Power, Education, And Religiosity, Margaret F. Oak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to investigate undergraduate university students' appraisals of their parents' marital happiness, and how those views affect respondents' current attitudes toward marriage. The sample included 1,437 undergraduate students between the years 1970 and 1999. The dependent variable was perceived marital happiness in the family of origin. The independent variables were perceived communication quality, perceived level of egalitarianism, level of education, and perceived religious activity of the respondents' parents as reported by the respondents. Respondents' desire to have a communication situation in their own marriage similar to that of the parents' marriage, and desire to have a power …

Social Stratification And Health In Dynastic Egypt: The Differential Effect Of Disease Among The Elite And Working Classes, Jerilyn Hansen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Social stratification in Dynastic Egypt between the elite and working class is suspected to have created differential health conditions for these two social classes. It is hypothesized that due to differing living conditions, resulting in varying levels of exposure to infectious pathogens, workloads, and quality of diet, the elite and working class will have dissimilar health conditions. Specifically, it is expected that the working class of Dynastic Egypt suffered ill health more often, and more severely, than the elite. The health conditions of the elite and working class were measured by the prevalence of the density-dependent disease tuberculosis, the workload-related …

Premarital Education: Participation, Attitudes, And Relation To Marital Adjustment In A Sample From Northern Utah, Bryan D. Ramboz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes, participation in, and potential effectiveness of premarital education as a vehicle to promote more satisfying marriages. A retrospective survey instrument, including existing measures of religious values, willingness to invest in marriage, and marital satisfaction, was used to gather data to answer research questions related to couples' participation in, and attitudes about premarital education, and their influence on marital adjustment and satisfaction. Information about the amount of Time spent in premarital education, breadth of Topics covered, Training of the provider, and whether or not Testing was performed also was gathered and …

The Case Of Youth Gangs In The Mormon Cultural Region A Synthetic, Dialectical Theory Of Social Problems: Bridging Social Constructionism And Objectivism, Ramona Avis Linville Higley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation uses the case of youth gangs in the Mormon Cultural Region to present a synthetic, dialectical theory of social problems, bridging the perspectives of social constructionism and objectivism. The primary assertion of this dissertation is that communities use social problems as tools to establish and maintain social boundaries and to protect the core values and beliefs of the established communal order.

The case of youth gangs in Utah, core of the Mormon Cultural Region, demonstrates that both social problems and the organizations involved with social problems follow a natural-history cycle similar to that reported in social movement literature. …

Beacon In The Night: Contested Space And Regional Culture On The Central Oregon Coast, Melissa Román

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Regional identity and contested space were explored through the lens of four central Oregon Coast lighthouses. These beacons offered a look into the settlement of the Pacific Northwest and the complexity of contested space. Not only did the sentinels sit at the edge of a human battle with nature, but the keepers and their families lived in problematic conditions as well (both domestic and environmental). The living quarters and outbuildings provided by the U.S. Lighthouse Board illustrated the cultural tastes of the period and the distillation of those tastes throughout the country as the nation expanded into and throughout the …

Community Factors That Correlate With Middle-Adolescent Antisocial Behavior, Olga Kamenchuk

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many adolescents nowadays display antisocial behavior. A large number of theories explaining origin of antisocial behavior have been developed in the last several centuries. The current study utilizes the "ecological" theoretical framework that allows the researcher to consider multiple ecological systems in which individuals operate and to focus on the community factors influencing antisocial behavior.

The researcher used part of the Prevention Needs Assessment survey to identify which community risk and protective factors correlate with middle-adolescent antisocial behavior. Analysis included intercluster, cluster-item correlations, and partial correlations. Results indicated correlations between antisocial behavior and a number of community risk factors, and …

On-Campus And Off-Campus Students' Ratings Of Instruction And Courses, Noriko Saeki

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The associations of student ratings of instruction and courses (SRIC) with noninstructional variables (e.g., class size, expected grade) were examined in three instructional delivery groups--on-campus, off-campus face-to-face, and distance education courses. Factor analysis of SRIC from a 20-item form yielded two highly correlated factors, which differed somewhat across the groups ("Course " and "Instruction"; "Course/Instruction" and "Interaction Opportunities /Instructor Availability"; "Course/Instruction" and "Interaction Opportunities/Helpfulness"). The only educationally significant (r² > .05) zero-order correlations were between SRIC total scores and expected grade, and were positive in all three groups (r² = .07, .08, .06). In multiple regression analyses, …

Test Of A Psychosocial Strain Model Of Delinquency For Mexican American Youth, Jose De Jesus Rodriguez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purposes of this study were twofold: (1) to compare rates of delinquency between Mexican American and European American adolescents, and (2) to test the application of a model of delinquency designed to be especially relevant to Mexican American adolescents. The study is one of the first attempts to advance knowledge about delinquency among Mexican American adolescents through the development and test of a comprehensive model of delinquency. The model constructed as part of this study—labeled the psychosocial strain model—was unique in that it integrated variables from different theoretical perspectives and its construction was guided by knowledge of cultural and …

Racial And Ethnic Differences In Rural And Urban Migration, Lisa L. Knapp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Most past research on migration has focused on young adults or recent retirees since these are the two groups most likely to migrate. Very little research has looked at the factors that affect the migration of people in the middle stages of life. The purpose of this research is to identify those factors, and determine if there are differences between whites, blacks, and Hispanics.

The data utilized for this research were from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79, a study funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that has been ongoing since 1979. Migration was defined as the movement …

Amenity Migration And Social Change: Expanding The Concept Of Community Attachment And Its Relationship To Dimensions Of Well-Being In The Rural West, Joan M. Brehm

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Most sociological analyses of community attachment have focused on the strength of attachment, with little concern for the qualities or attributes of a place to which people become attached. In cases where dimensions of attachment are the focus of analysis, the literature is rather narrowly focused on social dimensions, referring most often to connections with family, friends, and other social networks and largely ignoring the realm of natural environment factors. Two primary premises motivated this study. First, sociological understandings of community attachment would benefit from an expanded analytic framework that incorporates more complex arrays of both social and natural environment …

How The Winter Olympics Enrich Community Legacies For Recreational Open Space: A Case Study Of Selected European And American Olympic Sites, Jennifer A. Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Olympics have been a catalyst through the last century for community alteration including both the renovation of existing areas and building of new sites. This study focuses on the post-Olympic use of active and passive recreational open space infrastructure developed by Winter Olympic host cities.

This study examines four Winter Olympics. The observation of a variety of Olympic venues has provided an opportunity to compare the differences in planning due to historical, cultural, and social variables. The comparison of these Olympic sites contributes to understanding of the probability of success or failure of post game expectations for recreational open …

Maternal Involvement In Preschoolers' Sexuality Education: A Comparison Of Single And Married Mothers, Ginger S. Sandweg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the responses to a sexuality education questionnaire completed by 30 single mothers and 43 married mothers with preschool-aged children. Chi-square analyses were used to examine differences between married mothers and single mothers; mothers of males and mothers of females; and married mothers of males, married mothers of females, single mothers of males and single mothers of females. Age at which their preschool children first exhibited behaviors, frequency of that behavior, and comfort level of mothers' responses to those behaviors were addressed for each topic: male-female differences, reproduction and birth, privacy or modesty, taboo or obscene words, genital …

An Assessment Of Marital Satisfaction, Marital Adjustment, And Problematic Areas During The First Few Months Of Marriage Among A Sample Of Newlyweds In Utah, David G. Schramm

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A self-selected sample of 232 newlywed husbands and wives in Utah was surveyed to assess marital satisfaction, marital adjustment, and problematic areas during the first few months of marriage. The study utilized the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS), in addition to a list of30 potential problematic areas created by Creighton University to measure these constructs.

Although the majority of the newlyweds in this sample were fairly satisfied and well adjusted, 11% of both husbands and wives scored in the distressed range on the RDAS, signaling that the first few months of marriage can …

Charismatic Mega-Fauna Or Vermin Vertebrate - Where Are You?, Gary J. San Julian

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

Wildlife populations throughout much of the United States were decimated by the end of the 1800s. Many states established game agencies to protect wildlife and generate revenue through the sale of hunting licenses. These efforts were successful, populations grew, and citizens enjoyed seeing the large herbivores and camivores--the charismatic mega-fauna. In the past, most citizens and students had some tie with the farming community. Today's students often lack that link to the land and hunting. Wildlife agencies and universities are looking at ways to improve young professionals' understanding of the role hunting plays in management. Citizens that once left their …

Teaching Wildlife Damage Management Through Service-Learning, Greg K. Yarrow

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

As human-wildlife conflicts in South Carolina continue to increase, it became evident that students in the natural resource majors at Clemson University were not receiving the proper training and exposure to wildlife damage issues and management. To address this need, an undergraduate and graduate course was developed to expose students to various techniques used to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Other topic areas included the philosophical, sociological, ecological and economic basis for controlling damage caused by individual animals or populations of problem wildlife. The course involves a high degree of service-learning addressing human-wildlife conflict issues in South Carolina.

Genre And The Invention Of The Writer: Reconsidering The Place Of Invention In Composition, Anis S. Bawarshi

All USU Press Publications

In a focused and compelling discussion, Anis Bawarshi looks to genre theory for what it can contribute to a refined understanding of invention. In describing what he calls "the genre function," he explores what is at stake for the study and teaching of writing to imagine invention as a way that writers locate themselves, via genres, within various positions and activities. He argues, in fact, that invention is a process in which writers are acted upon by genres as much as they act themselves. Such an approach naturally requires the composition scholar to re-place invention from the writer to the …

What Works For Women In Undergraduate Physics?, Barbara L. Whitten, Suzanne R. Foster, Margaret L. Ducombe

ADVANCE Library Collection

The predominance of men in physics remains a puzzle. To attract talented women and minorities, the culture of college physics needs a makeover. In 1998, women received about 40% of the bachelor's degrees in mathematics and chemistry, but only 19% of the bachelor's in physics. That underrepresentation worsens at higher levels: The same year, women constituted 13% of physics PhD recipients and 8% of physics faculty members.(1) According to NSF, the community of working PhD-level physicists in 2000 was 84% white and 93% male.(2) What accounts for such stark numbers?

The Benefits, Challenges, And Implications Of Teleworking: A Literature Review, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

Flexible work arrangements are becoming more important to entrepreneurs today. However, effective new business owners are taking more time to consider the pros and cons of these arrangements. The purpose of this review is to explore the literature related to telework and its benefits, challenges, and implications for individuals, work groups, and organizations. It investigates the possible implications of telework to management theory and practice. It lists a number of theories/models and discusses concerns about the lack of researched theoretical frameworks. Finally, after the benefits and challenges are reviewed, recommendations and contributions are presented.

Mediators As The Walrasian Auctioneers Of Exchange Theory, David Dickenson

Economic Research Institute Study Papers

This article opens up mediation to systematic economic analysis by considering mediators as analogous to the Walrasian auctioneers of exchange theory. By altering trade-off rates among bargaining issues, mediators facilitate a process leading towards Pareto efficient voluntary settlements.

Cache Countycommunity Survey Of Future Landfill Alternatives, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, A. Caplan, T. Jones, T. Grijalva

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

State University in the spring of 2003. The purpose of this survey was to gather scientific information regarding the concerns, perceptions, and preferences of Cache County adults related to various future landfill siting options. The survey was conducted at the request of local officials, the Countywide Service District, and various advisory committees established to make recommendations on a future Cache County landfill site.

Cache County, Utah Agricultural Landevaluation And Site Assessment Handbook, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, G. Busch

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Urban encroachment on farmland has serious implications for the farm sector. As the county’s economic base and population has grown, important agricultural lands have been converted to urban uses. Since 1986, Cache County has lost 8,884 acres of prime and statewide important farmland - nearly 14 square miles - to urban development. The current rate of development is consuming over 600 acres of prime and statewide important farmland each year. As we plan for the future and the most cost efficient means for housing this population growth, it is important to note two things: 1) Housing is most affordable in …

The Anguish Of Snails: Native American Folklore In The West, Barre Toelken

All USU Press Publications

After a career of working and living with Native Americans and studying their traditions, Barre Toelken has written this sweeping study of Native American folklore in the West. Within a framework of performance theory, cultural worldview, and collaborative research, he examines Native American visual arts, dance, oral tradition (story and song), humor, and patterns of thinking and discovery to demonstrate what can be gleaned from Indian traditions by Natives and non-Natives alike. In the process he considers popular distortions of Indian beliefs, demystifies many traditions by showing how they can be comprehended within their cultural contexts, considers why some aspects …

Mediation, Walrasian Tatonnement, And Negotiations As An Exchange Economy, David Dickenson

Economic Research Institute Study Papers

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures, such as mediation and arbitration, are becoming increasingly used to help resolve disputes in a variety of areas. Among ADR procedures, mediation is the most utilized yet least analyzed procedure. This article examines negotiations and dispute resolution using the tools of general equilibrium theory. Specifically, mediators function as the Walrasian auctioneers of exchange theory by altering trade-off rates among bargaining issues. In this way, mediators facilitate a process leading towards voluntary settlements. This idea of Walrasian mediation is supported by the literature on mediation and mediator techniques, and so this insight opens up mediation to …

Models For The Distribution Of Quaking Aspen In Geographic And Potential Evapotranspiration Spaces Relevant To The Book Cliffs (Utah), 2000-2002, Joseph O. Sexton

Aspen Bibliography

Quaking aspen is the most widely distributed tree species in North America and an asset to sociological, ecological, and hydrological land values in the western United States. In recognition of these values, land managers seek means to oppose a regional decline of aspen in the Intermountain West—a decline apparently in progress since the close of the Pleistocene and driven by climate change, fire suppression, and increasing ungulate densities. One location of special relevance to this decline is the Utah-Colorado Book Cliffs, a discrete boundary of quaking aspen’s geographic range and a potential biogeographic corridor between the sub-alpine communities of the …

The Heritage Arts Imperative, Barre Toelken

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.