Digital Commons Network^™

Chimes: March 2, 2026, Calviin University

Chimes

Next phase of stadium construction marks a "game changer" for Calvin Athletics by Sarah Sparling

Morren Fitness Center's $100,000 upgrade receives mixed reactions by Sarah Sparling

"Stories of Communicating Scientific Ocean Drilling, From Text to Textiles": An exploration of science communication by Maya Oeverman

Christine Jeske on racial justice, rugged hope and enduring change by Ashley Hamons

IFI: A home for international students in West Michigan by Evangeline Anga

Men's basketball season ends in semifinals of MIAA tournament by Zach Kern & Henrik Beelen

Calvin Writers Read: A collective experience of art by Jorie Cho

Everyday Resistance: A journey in …

“It’S A Lot More To It Than Just Research”: Integrating Critical Data Literacy And Reasoning With Data Into A Stem Summer Camp, Marc T. Sager, Saki L. Milton, Candace Walkington

Publications

Purpose: This study explores how middle-grade girls from predominantly underrepresented and underserved racially and ethnically minoritized (UUREM) backgrounds developed critical data literacy (CDL) through participation in a week-long residential STEM camp. Given the increasing importance of data science education in a data-driven world, this research examines how informal learning environments can support CDL development among youth from historically marginalized groups.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study draws on qualitative interview data from eleven participants, and their group-produced artifacts to investigate how the camp experience supported engagement with data and the development of CDL. Interviews explored participants' experiences with data collection, organization, analysis, and …

The History Of Philanthropic Wealth In Maine, Jillian Foley Mppm, Timothy Atkinson Mppm, Emma Schwartz

Justice Policy

This report (March 2026) was developed in collaboration with the Maine Philanthropy Center to invite readers to engage in an honest exploration of how wealth was accumulated in Maine and how our history continues to shape our communities today. Grounded in research and interviews with historians and philanthropic leaders, the report examines the connections between extractive histories and modern-day philanthropic structures. The authors aim to guide readers to explore the historical context, reflect on their own histories, and consider more equitable, restorative approaches to community-centered giving. While this report was designed with funders and nonprofit leaders in mind, the authors …

Beyond The Prompt: The Social Costs Of Generative Artificial Intelligence, J. Scott Christianson, Josh Rickard

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

The rapid commercialization of generative artificial intelligence has produced extraordinary value for technology companies while systematically externalizing costs onto society. This Article provides a review of these externalities across three domains: environmental, human health, and digital infrastructure. The environmental burden includes massive energy and water consumption alongside ecologically destructive mining for rare earth elements and accelerating electronic waste. The human toll encompasses a documented pattern of AI-induced mental health crises, including suicide and self-harm linked to anthropomorphic chatbot design, raising novel questions of product liability in cases like Garcia v. Character.AI. The digital commons face degradation through industrialized data scraping …

The Lpe Critique Of Law And Economics, Sarath Sanga

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Pro Bono Industrial Complex, Tanina Rostain

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Recent settlements between corporate law firms and the Trump Administration, consisting of donations totaling nearly $1billion in free representation, have brought law firm pro bono to the fore. Pro bono has been institutionalized in corporate law firms since the turn of the 21^st century. Pro bono evangelists and corporate law firms contend that pro bono increases access to justice and protects individual rights. Scholarship on pro bono has not challenged these claims, focusing instead on managerial and organizational incentives that could increase the number of hours corporate firms devote to pro bono. Given the prominence of corporate law firm …

A Phenomenological Study Of Teacher And Student Experience Within A Community Of Inquiry: Utilizing Wonder-Infused Pedagogy In An Elementary Outdoor Classroom, Andrew Gilbert, Steph N. Dean

Publications

This interpretive phenomenological study explores how wonder-infused pedagogy, enacted within an elementary outdoor classroom, supported the development of a community of inquiry. We position the community of inquiry as the overarching framework for cultivating social, cognitive, and teaching presence; wonder as the pedagogical driver; and outdoor learning as the authentic context for engaging in science practices. In response to schooling contexts that often privilege testing and individual achievement over collaborative inquiry, we examined an eight-week outdoor wonder project with third- through fifth-grade students. Data sources included group interviews, student journals, teacher reflections, and photographs. Students engaged in weekly wonder journaling …

Toxic Immortality: Rethinking Decline And Plastics With Lucretius, Jessica Croteau

Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship

Much of contemporary environmental thought operates within paradigms of conservation, sustainability, and resilience—frameworks that assume the goal of ecological politics must be to prevent loss, preserve stability, and mitigate decline. However, these frameworks inadequately address cases where persistence and abundance, rather than disappearance, are the source of harm. By contrast, this article argues that an ecological ethic oriented toward decline, unbecoming, and decomposition reveals an alternative set of political and material stakes: not the conservation of things but their proper dissolution. Drawing from the materialist philosophy of Lucretius, the article critiques the prevailing assumption that endurance is inherently beneficial, highlighting …

Sidewalk Living, Michael C. Pollack

Articles

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit a city from enforcing a criminal ban on encampments on public property such as parks and sidewalks. But even if municipalities are now permitted to use tactics such as policing, encampment clearing, arrests, and imprisonment, these are not the right ways to address the problems of public homelessness.

Instead, homelessness must be understood as one of many conflicts over limited public space. At its best, vibrant sidewalk life enhances communities and local economies. But at its worst, every use of these finite …

Sidewalk Living, Michael C. Pollack

William & Mary Law Review

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit a city from enforcing a criminal ban on encampments on public property such as parks and sidewalks. But even if municipalities are now permitted to use tactics such as policing, encampment clearing, arrests, and imprisonment, these are not the right ways to address the problems of public homelessness.

Instead, homelessness must be understood as one of many conflicts over limited public space. At its best, vibrant sidewalk life enhances communities and local economies. But at its worst, every use of these …

Manufacturing Accountability: Towards Executive Adjudication Of Foreign Workplace Injuries, Jake Goodman-Palmer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

No abstract provided.

Discriminatory Effect(S), W. Kerrel Murray

Faculty Scholarship

In constitutional law, “discriminatory effect” often matters. So it’s surprising how often we don’t quite know what it means. That opacity is trans-substantive; it has been a recent pitfall in contexts as diverse as admissions-policy challenges under the Equal Protection Clause, personal-jurisdiction disputes under the “dormant” Commerce Clause, and, under the Free Exercise Clause, requests for exemptions from facially neutral laws.

This Article’s first corrective is a novel typology. Constitutional discriminatory effect is murky, in part, because it has many types; we perceive it in myriad ways across constitutional domains. Comprehending this complexity enhances our understanding of what discriminatory-effect rules …

Shaq Koyok, Indigenous Storytelling, And Puppetry As Resistance, John Kilburn, Ivan Tacey, Emily Tacey

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Shaq Koyok is an Orang Asli indigenous Malaysian artist and activist. Following his keynote talk at the Illustration and the Paper Artefact conference, Ivan Tacey and John Kilburn met with Shaq to discuss how he uses puppetry in his artivist practice.

Women Working Well: The Experiences Of Black Women Nonprofit Leaders In The Tristate Area, Erika K. Stanley Wesley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative inquiry study examined the lived experiences, challenges, and leadership practices of Black women nonprofit leaders in the northeastern United States. Guided by Black feminist thought and positive leadership theory, the study explored how participants’ identities informed leadership enactment and how positive leadership practices influenced organizational impact and change. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 11 Black women nonprofit leaders and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns across participant narratives. Findings aligned with four research questions. Participants described unique experiences characterized by identity as power, cultural bridge-building, and the weight of representation. Key challenges included funding …

Standing Against Housing, Brian M. Miller

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Lands, Brent D. Chicken, Tanner M. Boyzuick

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Louisiana, Paul Upsons

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Spectator 2026-02-26, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

2026-02-25 Seattle U’S Sustainable Sprint To Finish Line In Race To Zero Waste, Tristan Scott

The Spectator Online

No abstract provided.

[Excerpt From] Taking Action: Top 10 Priorities For Nurses To Protect Health In A Changing Climate, Susan B. Hassmiller

Sigma Publications: Book Excerpts

Taking Action: Top 10 Priorities for Nurses to Protect Health in a Changing Climate offers nurses a clear, evidence-based road map for responding to one of the most significant public health challenges of our time. Written as a practical and nonpolitical guide, the book translates the latest science into actionable strategies, helping nurses understand and address the ways climate-driven events affect the health of the public. Authors Sue Hassmiller and Katie Huffling—together with distinguished experts across nursing and environmental health—provide concrete recommendations for strengthening climate resilience, implementing effective clinical and community interventions, advancing sustainability within healthcare systems, and advocating for …

Using Fire Investigators' Narratives To Explore Serial Firesetting Behaviors, Alisha Jones-Creel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative narrative inquiry examined how fire investigators share tacit knowledge related to threat assessment and risk management in cases of serial firesetting. Data were derived from eight semi-structured interviews with fire investigators from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas who had investigated firesetting incidents within the past five years. Narrative analysis was used to identify cross-case patterns in how investigators recognize offender characteristics, assess contextual risk factors, and detect early warning signs across incidents. Analysis identified three themes addressing how lived experience informs peer understanding of offender behavior, risk indicators, and warning signs, and three themes addressing how narrative experience guides …

The Impact Of Integrating Social Benefit Requirements For Urban Green Infrastructure And Place Identity Attributes To Enhance The Sense Of Place - Case Study Of Central Park, Madinaty, New Cairo City, Egypt, Ibrahim Magdi Mohammed, Rehab Abdelfatah Abdel Aziz Mahmoud

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This research develops an integrated model that links the social benefit requirements of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) with the non-physical attributes of Place Identity (PI) to enhance the Sense of Place (SOP) in contemporary urban environments. The need for this integration arises from limitations in current planning frameworks, which often prioritize ecological performance while overlooking cultural, perceptual, and behavioral dimensions that shape user attachment and belonging. The study adopts an inductive and synthesis-based approach to identify key UGI indicators across environmental, social, economic, and spatial dimensions, alongside PI attributes related to places’ legibility, uniqueness, publicness and territoriality, place’s identification. To …

Fluid Geographies: Water, Science, And Settler Colonialism In New Mexico, Wiley K. Waggoner

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

From Copper To Ashes: Violations Of The Right To A Healthy Environment And Health In Tsumeb, Namibia, Sarah Dávila

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The rights to a healthy environment and health are not new human rights to the African System for Human and Peoples’ Rights. In fact, they have been protected under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights since 1981. However, outside of the established normative framework, a pressing issue arises in States where the extractive industry maintains a stronghold on the economy. The people of and around Tsumeb, Namibia, have been subjected to egregious human rights abuses and an environmental crisis. Their lives and environment have been historically and continuously destroyed due to the foreign-corporate extractive industry. The mining and …

Satellites, Urban Heat, And Environmental Justice: Community As The Bridge Between Analysis And Action, Joshua B. Fisher, Ambar Rivera, Ava Cison, Ashley Agatep, Kainani Tacazon, Sophia Spiegleman, Alison Mckenery, Rio E. Fisher, Reginald Archer, Jason A. Douglas

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Heat waves are increasing in frequency, intensity, magnitude, and duration, causing a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities exposed to urban heat islands. Newly emerging spaceborne thermal sensing instruments, such as ECOSTRESS and Hydrosat, now have the capabilities to measure urban surface temperatures accurately at the block level (< 100 m) and with enough frequency to capture transient heat waves (daily to subweekly). Such data are critical for monitoring and informing policy and mitigation efforts, such as resurfacing, green space, cooling stations, and medical mobilization. These serve to advance environmental justice and reduce health risks—and deaths—among the most vulnerable: minority, low-income, elderly, those with physical- and mental-health preconditions, unhoused, children, and outdoor workers. While scientists have increasingly used satellite data to quantify urban heat islands and risks to communities, there remains a significant gap in action resulting from such analyses—a figurative and literal “valley of death.” Reviewing over 500 scientific publications, we identify a critical lack of engagement with the communities being analyzed (10.9%; n = 58); yet, community engagement is key to bridging such analysis with subsequent action. Here, we demonstrate how participatory community engagement directly with data and analysis leads to increased policy changes and mitigation efforts. Our framework has immediate implications for how scientists may augment their work and thought processes to achieve …

State Siting Of Renewable Energy – Preemptive Power Grab Or Power Play?, Sarah Everhart

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

The United States needs more—and cleaner—energy. Experts project that in the near future, the United States will need to significantly increase its electricity generation. Currently, the burning of fossil fuels remains a significant source of power generation in the United States. However, these fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases that are one of the main drivers of the impending and likely disastrous, climate change. Therefore, it has never been more vital to decarbonize the energy sector. However, there are two significant impediments to the deployment of renewable energy: restrictive local siting laws and community opposition.

According to the Sabin Center for …

Environmental Law’S Missing Piece: The Right To Nature, Ori Sharon

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

For decades, environmental law has been trapped in a binary value system: it either treats nature instrumentally, as property to be used for human benefit, or views it as intrinsically valuable, deserving protection for its own sake. Both approaches, though ethically powerful, have struggled to deliver consistent and enforceable protections. As ecological crises deepen, this conceptual stalemate is no longer just inadequate—it is dangerous.

This article argues that environmental law remains structurally incomplete. It has overlooked a third category of value—relational value—long recognized in ethics and conservation science but largely absent from legal doctrine. Relational values arise from the lived, …

The Poisoning Of Flint’S People, Vanessa Lamoureux

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.