Digital Commons Network^™

Remedies For Decades Of Hbcu Underfunding: Can Coalition V. Maryland Serve As A Model, Or Is Government “Persuasion” Needed?, John K. Pierre, Gail S. Stephenson

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

No abstract provided.

Empirically Testing The “Unbiased Factfinder[S]”, Chris Cox

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

This scholarly investigation examines the decision-making processes in sexual assault cases, juxtaposing the charging decisions of lay individuals with the factual sufficiency reviews conducted by appellate judges. The study's comprehensive analysis of 254 cases provides a unique perspective on criminal justice decision-making within the context of the military justice system—a singular jurisdiction that confers prosecutorial discretion upon lay individuals and permits extensive factual sufficiency reviews by appellate courts, akin to quasi-jury fact-finding articulated in written opinions.

The research findings challenge the paradigm of formal legalism, lending support to a legal realist perspective that posits both lay individuals and judges are …

Queer In & Out Of Montana: Oral Histories Of The Lgbtq+ Exodus From Montana, Erin T. Heaton

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This project will summarize findings from six oral histories of LGBTQ+ people who lived in Montana, but have left or are leaving in the near future. This project will explore the questions: Why are queer and transgender people leaving Montana? What are common experiences for LGBTQ+ people living in Montana? The answer to these questions will be derived from the stories of the Narrators who provided their oral histories. The questions utilized in the oral histories covered topics of identity, “coming out,” living history, cultural observations, community experiences and perceptions, well-being, healthcare, laws, and reasons for leaving. Thematic Analysis was …

Caring For Public Art On Campus: A Case Study In Archives, Conservation And Curation For Public Art At The City University Of New York At York College In South Jamaica, Queens (2025 Cuny Research In The Classroom Grant Project), Emily Verla Bovino

Open Educational Resources

The City University of New York (CUNY) hosts public art at many of its colleges. The practice of funding public art through the CUNY Construction Fund and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) began after a 1966 New York State Law created a financing and construction partnership between the two entities.

As these collections of museum-quality contemporary art on CUNY campuses age and increase in value, how can care and conservation be ensured? Conceived in response to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the projected 11% growth of employment for archivists, curators, museum technicians, …

2025 Document For Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day Soirée, Stacy Penk, Diana Symons

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

No abstract provided.

Social Determinants Of Mental Health Outcomes, Ariana Fein

Honors Theses

Mental health disorders, particularly anxiety and depression, are a growing global concern with profound consequences on individuals' well-being and societal functioning. The burden of these disorders is not only psychological but also economic, affecting quality of life. Mental health outcomes are heavily influenced by a range of social determinants, such as financial status, education, and access to healthcare. While extensive research has focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) countries, there remains a significant gap in understanding how these determinants affect mental health in low-resource settings or non-WEIRD countries. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring the …

Nirsa Student Referees: Exploring The Connection Between Sense Of Community And Positive Health And Well-Being Outcomes, Jacob K. Tingle

School of Business Faculty Research

Despite working in complex environments, which require managing antagonistic and abusive relationships, sport referees are essential to ensure fair and safe competition. Evidence suggests officiating can positively impact well-being and officiating communities provide social support. Despite those positives, there remains a shortage of qualified officials, which is compounded by aging referee populations. These concerns emphasize the need to attract young people and examine well-being benefits resulting from involvement in officiating communities. As such, the aim of this study is to help NIRSA professionals better understand how the community or social networks made through officiating intramural sports could better support student …

Climate Change And Parenthood: Impact On Family Size Decision-Making, Minha Hossain, Jennifer Lai, Mindy Engle-Friedman

Publications and Research

This study explores how parental status relates to childbearing decisions in the context of climate change and builds on prior research linking climate anxiety to reduced family size intentions. A survey of 114 participants revealed that non-parents were significantly more likely than parents to plan to have fewer children and to express concerns about climate change. These findings underscore differences in how parents and non-parents approach future reproductive decisions and highlight the role of climate-related concerns in shaping family planning intentions.

Framing Ncaa V. Alston: Amicus Briefs’ Competing Visions Of Student-Athlete Compensation, Stuart A. Sutton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative content analysis was to examine how amici curiae frame policy preferences in amicus briefs submitted before the United States Supreme Court in NCAA v. Alston (2021). The questions addressed in this study were what dominant policy frames did interest groups use to frame policy preference in NCAA v. Alston (2021), and which (if any) policy frames in the amicus briefs emerged in the written opinions of the United States Supreme Court? This analysis indicates the complexities and intricacies of competing vision of student-athlete compensation within the persuasive lens of amicus briefs through interest groups. In …

Project Portfolio: Strengthening Marital Bonding In Indonesian Christian Spouses Through A Contextually Designed Marriage Enrichment Retreat Curriculum, Dinka Nehemia Utomo

Doctor of Leadership

Numerous couples in our local church struggle to maintain their marital commitment and longing helps to overcome marriage hurdles. Regrettably, the denominations in our context, have not developed a coherent plan or roadmap for empowering and enriching married couples. While serving as a pastor, I witnessed countless couples in many congregations dealing with marital troubles in solitude without the required support from the church. I started developing a curriculum to satisfy this requirement in response to this circumstance. This project seeks to strengthen marital commitment, increase intimacy, and promote harmonious and loving relationships by applying biblical principles. A Marriage Enrichment …

Project Portfolio: Connecting Through Conflict, Jennifer Vernam

Doctor of Leadership

The Connecting Through Conflict project was designed to respond to the following NPO statement: “Christians are prioritizing their ideologies above core tenants, which is challenging their Christ-centered freedoms and presenting barriers to living in community.” Using a collaborative design model for discovery with various stakeholder groups, it was identified that Christian leaders do not have strategies for managing ideological conflict in their communities. This deficit, in turn led to conflicts to being avoided, driving those with minority views to perceive themselves as outsiders to their communities of faith. The resulting product was designed to empower Christian leaders to normalize the …

Project Portfolio: Ties, Strong And Weak: Toward The Flourishing Of A Leader’S Network, Matthew Travis Vaughn

Doctor of Leadership

NPO: Presbyteries promote connectionalism, yet pastors and ministry leaders experience isolation and burnout, lacking healthy communication, trustworthy relationships, and healthy life-rhythms which affect their well-being. I serve as the executive director of church planting for a regional presbytery in the Presbyterian Church in America denomination. Additionally, for many years I have served as a coach and consultant to pastors, church planters, and executives primarily in the nonprofit space. Prior to this project, I was aware of various resources available to pastors and ministry leaders who are stressed out, lonely, or discouraged. At the same time, there was a gap in …

The Lived Experiences Of Physical Therapy Educators During Ethics Instruction, Erin Simunds Pt

Doctorate in Education

Physical therapy educators must prepare students to navigate the ethical complexity and pressures of clinical practice. However, limited evidence exists regarding the best pedagogical strategies to develop future clinicians' ethical skills. This study aimed to explore how physical therapy ethics educators integrated their personal and professional experiences with academic elements when designing and implementing ethics instruction. The research draws from the semi-structured interviews of eight educators teaching ethics in Midwestern physical therapy programs to discover instructional patterns supporting student engagement with the content. Participants' narratives specified how curriculum design considerations, critical thinking dispositions, and organizational alignment factors influenced their approach …

Parasocial Relationships And Women’S Friendship Expectations, Perceptions, And Satisfaction, Renee N. Plaza

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Television (TV) and film have increasingly become meaningful ways for people to connect, whether through discussing content, engaging with celebrities online, or forming imagined relationships with fictional characters. These one-sided connections are known as parasocial relationships (PSR). While prior research has mainly focused on how PSR influence romantic relationships—affecting ideals, expectations, perceptions, and satisfaction—the current study expands this examination to non-romantic relationships, specifically friendships.

The aim of this research is to explore how stronger non-romantic PSR might influence an individual's expectations, beliefs, perceptions, and overall satisfaction with their real-life friendships. Participants completed several assessments, including the Parasocial Relationship Measure, Relationship …

Promoting Perinatal Mental Well-Being: Empowering Healthcare Professionals, Deborah Flam

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This pilot study aimed to address the critical need to enhance healthcare providers’ knowledge and shift their beliefs regarding perinatal mental health disorders through the development and implementation of a targeted educational workshop, “Promoting Perinatal Mental Health Well-Being”, designed to improve their understanding and attitudes toward identifying, treating, and supporting affected individuals. Using a qualitative approach, pre- and post-tests were administered to assess changes in knowledge and beliefs. While statistical significance was not achieved, likely due to a small sample size, prior training among participants, and other limitations, the findings revealed a meaningful shift in provider beliefs. Participants reported increased …

Navigating The Seas Of History In International Law, Valentina Vadi

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

Inquiries into questions of time, history, and international law have recently come to the fore. So far, however, many studies have only examined developments in international law from a temporally and thematically fragmented, brief, and narrow perspective. Due to international law’s growing normative and institutional fragmentation and emphasis on specific crises, episodes, and events, many analyses focus on transient trends and particular facets of international law. This study suggests an alternative to these constrained viewpoints: a thorough, multilayered, and broad perspective to questions of international law, drawing on Fernand Braudel’s tripartite theory of time.

Braudel’s theory of time provides valuable …

A Pedagogical Survey Of Solo Multiple Percussion Literature, Austin Shoupe

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In the study of western classical percussion, there are three or four core instruments through which the necessary skills of the discipline are taught. The three universally accepted core instruments are snare drum, keyboard percussion, and timpani. Multiple Percussion is often considered as a fourth core instrument, given its significant presence in symphonic literature, musical theatre, chamber music, and solo repertoire. However, despite its importance to percussion performance, there are very few published pedagogical materials for multiple percussion. While there are etude books available, there are no comprehensive method books aimed at multiple percussion pedagogy.

To fill this gap in …

When Emotions Flare: Solar Rhythms, Emotions And Cycles Of Political Revolution, Andreas Hernandez, Carolina Zilli Vieira, Alexandra Smith, Rebecca Olson

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Revolutions are among the most transformative events in human history. Analyzing 395 revolutionary episodes from 1900 to 2014, we find that major waves cluster around solar maxima - periods of intensified geomagnetic activity. Drawing on biomedical research linking geomagnetic disturbances to cardiovascular and stress regulation, and thus to emotional states, we propose that solar cycles modulate the affective ecologies within which revolutions arise. Solar activity may accelerate, shape, and amplify revolutionary cycles by heightening emotional climates and tipping fragile systems toward mass mobilization. This reframes revolutions as planetary events - entanglements of political conflict, embodied emotion, and cosmic …

Methods Appendix For Early Explorations Of Holistic Review In Graduate Medical Education, Gena C. Dunivan, Jonathan D. Eldredge, Marlene P. Ballejos, Melissa Gonzales, Valerie L. Romero-Leggott

Publications

No abstract provided.

Supporting English Language Learners In Agricultural Education: A Document Analysis, Ellie Chitwood

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In Nebraska’s rural agricultural education classrooms, increasing numbers of students learn English as a second language, yet support tailored for these learners remains limited. This study explores how English Language Learner (ELL) resources are organized, accessed, and utilized within Nebraska’s agricultural education system. Drawing on Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and leadership education frameworks, a qualitative document analysis examined state policies, Educational Service Unit (ESU) supports, and professional development materials. Findings reveal a coherent statewide policy overshadowed by uneven regional implementation and limited agricultural contextualization. Despite resource disparities and technological constraints, agricultural educators demonstrate leadership by innovating bilingual supports and fostering …

Debbie Alicen Reclaimed Her Voice And Started The Human Rights Campaign In Lincoln, Nebraska, Morgan Grey, Debbie Alicen, Moni Usasz

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A story about Debbie Alicen's efforts in the early 1980s to have an amendment added to Lincoln, Nebraska's Human Rights Ordinance that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual preference.

Document, "Highlights From The History Of Family Service Of Memphis," 1943

Documents

Document, "Highlights from the History of Family Service of Memphis," Memphis, TN, 1943. The document is 19 pages in length.

Comparing The Representations Of Order And Behavior In James Joyce’S “The Dead” And Samuel Beckett’S Endgame, Araav Thakker

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Dividing Paradise: A History Of Land In Hawai'i, Lacy Nicholas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper acts as a biography of Hawaiian land, using multidisciplinary sources to construct a timeline of how land has been conceptualized and used by the people who live there. It analyzes Hawai'i as a settler colony. I begin with the first Polynesian settlers in Hawai'i, focusing on the feudal-like division and redistribution of land by the king in the pre-colonial era. Then, I discuss the attitude of the American settlers in Hawai'i and how those ideas were manifested in the privatization of land and the age of sugarcane plantations. Next, I focus on how the United States military has …

Breaking A Criminal Mind: Leveraging Habit Breaking/Building For Crime Reduction, Dru Gerace

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Criminal behavior is often shaped by a complex interaction between psychological processes, habitual actions, and neurobiological mechanisms. This research explores how habitual decision-making and reinforcement patterns contribute to criminal tendencies, integrating insights from neuroscience and psychology. The study examines how early-life experiences, cognitive biases, and environmental factors shape habitual behaviors that may predispose individuals to criminal activity. It also discusses the role of executive functioning, impulse control, and neuroplasticity in breaking maladaptive patterns. By analyzing contemporary theories of habit formation and their neurological underpinnings, this paper offers a multidimensional perspective on the development of criminal behavior. Furthermore, implications for rehabilitation …

Social Media Through A Binary Lens: The Impact On College Students & Their Mental Health, Piper Mallchok

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

It is important to first understand how individuals use social media so that we can then understand how and why their use will change the individual impact social media will have. Some students experience a decline in their mental health when their social media use changes. There is an abundance of research on college students and social media, respectively, that also addresses gender as a variable. In this review, the research will be studied to further understand the voices of those who are not commonly included in research that operates under a gendered framework. Additionally, these ideas will be compared …

Thanksgiving Prayer Walk, Calvin University

Campus Ministries Resources

No abstract provided.

Booked Up Behind Bars: The Impact Of Fiction On Incarcerated Individuals, Sydney N. Peters

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

While prison education programs primarily emphasize vocational skills and functional literacy, the role of fiction in fostering personal growth remains very under-researched. This research paper explores the impact of reading fiction on incarcerated individuals, focusing on its potential to impact emotional intelligence, empathy, and behavior. Research in psychology and correctional education suggests that fiction improves cognitive empathy, emotional regulation, and social skills (Mar & Oatley, 2008; Green & Brock, 2000). I argue that it would be useful to utilize these findings for rehabilitative programming in corrections.

This study critically evaluates findings from psychological and correctional literacy research. Evidence from studies …

Reproductive Rights: How Voting Behavior Illustrates Shifting Political Attitudes, Keavy Callwood

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research project intends to explore a causal link between the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) and shifting political attitudes as modeled through voting behaviors. Research will be conducted by using data from government and reputable sources that are representative of the general public to show that political attitudes have shifted since the release of the Dobbs decision. Additionally, the question will be analyzed through discussing several political theories and applying them to the current issues being studied. This research could help show how the Supreme Court is an important actor in the political …

Increasing Women In Political Careers, Kendall Craig

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Women are underrepresented in political careers and through a series of questions, female, college-aged participants were asked to rank their answers to various questions in regard to inequalities women face on a scale of one to ten. The participants ran through two interventions where they learned about political careers as well as the struggles of women in political careers, the importance and impact. After the interventions, the exact same questions with the same scales were offered to participants to observe whether education on the topic could increase desire to seek careers in politics. The findings show that a small majority …