Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Delta Airlines – A Carbon Neutrality Pact To 2050 And Beyond A Public Policy White Paper, Drew P. Lemon

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

As part of a new global climate initiative, the United States very one Atlanta based Delta Airlines has recently announced to the world they will be embarking on an initiative to provide a never-before-seen technique of air travel; Completely carbon-neutral air transport and net-zero carbon emissions across all operational sectors of their fleet by 2050. Delta Airlines has now become the first official United States-based airline to promise net-zero carbon flying to the entire public within the next few decades, and the airline is set on being the catalyst in generating positive change for the United States aviation industry and …

Argument For H.R. 82 "The Social Security Fairness Act", Troy Domini M. Ayado

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This paper analyzes H.R. 82 "The Social security Fairness Act" of 2021 by using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. The paper focuses on the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset provisions of the social security Act. When social security was initially passed, pension benefits were not extended to public sector employees until the reforms in 1950s. However, in the 1970s the Supreme Court declared that men were no longer required to prove that they were reliant on their spouses to be eligible for spousal or widower's benefits, thereby making thousands of male retirees eligible to receive benefits. …

Rock Climbers, Public Outrage, And Deliberate Fires: An Expedition To Public Lands On The East Coast, Kat Manchester

CAFE Symposium 2023

Many are familiar with national public lands like national parks, forests, and monuments. But people are often unaware of the complex histories of these lands and the current problems facing their management. This project focuses on various public lands on the East Coast, including the Wayne National Forest, New River Gorge National Park, and the Monongahela National Forest. This poster examines the history of these lands, how they are viewed conceptually, and the managerial challenges currently facing them.

An Expedition To The Public Lands: Public Lands Of The Mid-Atlantic Region, Madeleine G. Ulman

CAFE Symposium 2023

This hypothetical "expedition" explores the complex history and managerial challenges of four different public lands in the Mid-Atlantic region: Pinelands National Reserve, Assateague Island National Seashore, Shenandoah National Park, and Monongahela National Forest. Additionally, the conceptual ideas of nature as commodity and nature as static or unpeopled in the context of public lands will be discussed in this expedition.

Denmark And Sweden: The Collision Between Welfare State Politics And Immigration, Amy Elizabeth Cantrell

Student Publications

The Scandinavian welfare states of Denmark and Sweden have famously similar socio-political and cultural systems, ones which have advanced the common perception of these nations as united in a common humanitarian and progressive global position. However there exists a significant divergence within either nation’s approach to immigration, asylum and integration policy, one indicative of the deeply ingrained deviations in popular understandings of national belonging and perspectives on greater European and global integration. By contextualizing the historical progressions of either nation and juxtaposing their individual responses to both the 2015 European refugee crisis and the contemporary Ukrainian conflict and resulting refugee …

Creating A Home Base For Treatment In Homeless Courts, Kyle C. Troeger

Student Publications

As the number of unsheltered homeless increases, an alternative to criminalization, homeless courts, have also become more common. 18 States currently have one or more specialty court programs dedicated to meting out alternative sentencing to the local homeless. Homeless courts are a rehabilitative process with the end goal of reintegration into society. They allow nonviolent misdemeanors to be resolved without jail time or fines. In lieu of traditional sentencing is community service and mandated self-improvement. This chapter examines the current criminalization, and history, of homelessness in the United States. Of primary interest is the development of homeless courts as an …

Perceptions Of Bystander Intervention: Surveying Students’ Relationship To Sexual Misconduct, Emma G. Padrick

Student Publications

Bystander intervention education programs have become increasingly popular as a tool for the primary prevention of sexual violence at institutions of higher education (IHEs). Emerging research surrounding bystander intervention on college campuses reveals promising results, yet there is limited extant research exploring how students perceive bystander intervention as a tool to protect themselves and their peers. Students over the age of 18 at a small, private, liberal arts IHE in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States with approximately 2,600 students were surveyed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to bystander intervention. Students demonstrated a willingness to intervene and …

The Consent Of The Governed, Carter A. Hanson

Student Publications

The Consent of the Governed is a Kolbe Fellowship project investigating gerrymandering through the lens of mathematics, Supreme Court litigation, and the potential for redistricting reform. It was produced as a five-episode podcast during the summer of 2020; this paper is the transcription of the podcast script. The project begins with an analysis of the impact of gerrymandering on the composition of the current U.S. House of Representatives. It then investigates the arguments and stories of Supreme Court gerrymandering cases in the past twenty years within their political contexts, with a focus on the Court's reaction to different mathematical methods …

Law's Racism: The Perpetuation Of Settler Colonialism In Ktunaxa V. British Columbia, Christian J. Zukowski

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

In considering the nexus between law, religion, and settler colonialism I consider a case in which an Indigenous freedom of religion claim under section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was ruled by the majority of Supreme Court of Canada as not being a valid freedom of religion claim. In examining this decision, I will construct an analytical framework by which I will examine the decision in a way that considers the legal system in which it occurs, that legal system’s culture, and the relevance of land in this case. Using this analytical framework, I will tease …

Cannabis And Its Historical Role In America’S Intentional Segregation Of Race, William E. Kelley

Student Publications

One of the more dramatic shifts in attitudes towards a particular trend or culture we have seen during the turn of the century is none other than attitudes towards marijuana. The Cannabis plant, commonly known as marijuana, has been illegal in the United States for a while now. In the past ten years, we have seen an influx of states and countries relaxing their attitudes towards marijuana, and it's potential benefits. While this shift in attitude towards a relatively harmless drug is a step in the right direction, many are unaware of the sinister and racist history behind outlawing the …

Pajamas For Change, Alexander R. Kohn

Georges Lieber Essay Contest on Resistance

I created a protest called the "Where Are the Children Project" to bring attention to the immigrant children held in detention centers. Throughout the project I was able to see how much others cared about helping these children gain better living conditions, and I was able to learn about leadership and resistance. My values helped drive me into action, and the importance of what I was working towards helped me become more confident. After months of protests, the Homestead Detention Center where reports of maltreatment had been especially high was closed, but my work to improve the rights of immigrants …

Deconstructing Perceptions Of The Border Patrol At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Claire H. Woodward

Student Publications

The U.S.-Mexico border is a space for public debate on the legal and political aspects of immigration. Politicization of the southern border has resulted in polarized public opinion regarding immigration, leading to discrepancies between public perceptions of the Border Patrol and agents’ perceptions of their job. Agents’ work requires emotional labor, and lack of training for difficult encounters, pressure within the agency to detach from emotions, and public outcry lead to dissonance in agent perceptions of their own role in immigration enforcement. In addition, economic, ethnic, and gender-based factors contribute to agent identities, which intersect with perceptions of their roles …

Gender-Based Experiences Of Migrant Smuggling At The Us-Mexico Border, Sarah E. Rinehart

Student Publications

The US-Mexico border has been increasing its security measures, which has corresponded with increases in migration. Due to increasing restrictions on who is able to legally migrate, many turn to irregular migration, and the more effective way of achieving irregular migration is through use of a migrant facilitator. Migrant smugglers are individuals who receive compensated for assisting others in crossing a national border through illegal means. In discourses about irregular migration from the media and political, migrant smugglers are typically portrayed as criminalized men who take advantage of vulnerable, victimized women migrants. While the experiences of men and women migrants …

Presidential Leadership In The Space Age, Ziv R. Carmi

Student Publications

Mankind’s quest to reach the moon consisted of many people in leadership positions. In the US, however, many of the decisions behind the space race, especially funding for it, were made by four men: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Richard Nixon. While some presidents (namely Kennedy) receive more credit than others for their work on bringing man to the moon, each of them passed influential policy that was vital in the development of Apollo: Eisenhower founded NASA and began research on the Saturn V, Kennedy gave vision and urgency to the program, Johnson gave massive …

Oil Wealth And Gender In Political And National Belonging, Caroline M. Bosworth

Student Publications

Oil-based economies drive a connection between national identity and support for patriarchal belonging. Oil wealthy nations ensure that both men and women are excluded from political participation, and thus have a weak civil society. Through entrenching the population in the benefits of the oil economy, rentier states affirm that there is a high level of national identity. A weak civil society and the patriarchal nature of the oil wealth disenfranchises men and women, thus increasing women’s belief in the effectiveness of a male leader.

Naming Names: The Impact Of Supreme Court Opinion Attribution On Citizen Assessment Of Policy Outcomes, Scott S. Boddery, Laura P. Moyer, Jeff Yates

Political Science Faculty Publications

The manner in which political institutions convey their policy outcomes can have important implications for how the public views institutions' policy decisions. This paper explores whether the way in which the U.S. Supreme Court communicates its policy decrees affects how favorably members of the public assess its decisions. Specifically, we investigate whether attributing a decision to the nation's High Court or to an individual justice influences the public's agreement with the Court's rulings. Using an experimental design, we find that when a Supreme Court outcome is ascribed to the institution as a whole, rather than to a particular justice, people …

Is Citizenship Still Relevant? State Sovereignty, Migration, And Sanctuary Cities In A Globalizing World, Melissa J. Lauro

Student Publications

This paper argues that sanctuary cities and sanctuary policies in the United States are a manifestation of the conflicts resulting from processes of globalization, which have changed traditional notions of citizenship, state sovereignty, and state security, as well as fostered a cultural backlash and identity politics within the U.S.

Fair Use And Social Media, John Dettinger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This poster was created in a collaborative effort by Musselman Library’s Copyright Committee as part of a display for Fair Use Week 2018. The poster was intended to get viewers to think about the 4 factors of fair use in the context of two art projects that used social media photos: Yolocaust by Shahak Shapira and New Portraits by Richard Prince. It was also intended to get viewers thinking about the ways their social media content might get used beyond the original intention.

What Is (And Isn't) Fair Use In Music Sampling?, Devin Mckinney

All Musselman Library Staff Works

"Fair use" is a principle embedded in copyright law which permits -- under circumstances governed by a set of considerations commonly known as "the four factors" -- the borrowing of material from copyrighted works to create new works. Created for Fair Use Week 2018, this poster highlights the principle as it has applied to three controversial cases involving music sampling. For each case, the observer is given the essential facts; shown which of the four factors (represented by icons) were most central; and told the real-world outcome of each case. As an interactive display, the poster covered each "Outcome" column …

Courts And Executives, Jeffrey L. Yates, Scott S. Boddery

Political Science Faculty Publications

William Howard Taft was both our twenty-seventh president and the tenth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court -- the only person to have ever held both high positions in our country. He once famously commented that "presidents may come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever" (Pringle 1998). His remark reminds us that presidents serve only four-year terms (and are now limited to two of them), but justices of the Supreme court are appointed for life and leave a legacy of precedent-setting cases after departing the High Court. Of course, presidents also leave a legacy of important …

In Solidarity, Musselman Library, Salma Monani, Sarah M. Principato, Dave Powell, Brent C. Talbot, Charles L. Weise, Bruce A. Larson, Scott Hancock, Mckinley E. Melton, David S. Walsh, Jennifer Q. Mccary, Kristina G. Chamberlin

Next Page

This edition of Next Page is a departure from our usual question and answer format with a featured campus reader. Instead, we asked speakers who participated in the College’s recent Student Solidarity Rally (March 1, 2017) to recommend readings that might further our understanding of the topics on which they spoke.

Paper Wall: The Law As A Tool Of Social Division For Courtroom Officials, Aiden J. Egglin

Student Publications

The legal system is implicit with biases that shape how it runs on a larger scale, even if its individual members are hesitant about discussing racial, gender, etc. bias.

Commentary: Justice Who Follows Scalia's Path Would Hurt The Working Class, Bruce A. Larson

Political Science Faculty Publications

During the campaign, Donald Trump released a list of 21 conservatives from which he promised to pick Supreme Court justices, should he win the election. With President-elect Trump apparently nearing a decision on a nominee to replace the late Justice Scalia, Senate Republicans are no doubt eagerly awaiting the chance to confirm Trump's pick and restore a conservative majority on the court. [excerpt]

Rhetoric Vs Reality: Public Opinion On Immigration In The United States, Elizabeth M. Belair

Student Publications

The United States has a rich and interesting history of immigration. The country itself was created by waves of immigrants who came from across the globe. Although immigration has always existed in the U.S., the number of immigrants coming to the United States has increased during the 21st century, and as a result, a controversial debate surrounding the consequences of immigration has emerged. In this paper I examine how Americans view the debate on immigration, specifically focusing on what affects public opinion on this topic. I find that shifts in public opinion do not reflect changes in immigration patterns but …

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

SURGE

Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

A Half Century Later, We Need The Voting Rights Act More Than Ever, Jill Ogline Titus

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Two years ago, the Supreme Court determined that voter discrimination is a thing of the past. The Court's decision to gut the 1965 Voting Rights Act ensures that this summer's 50^thanniversary commemoration is an ironic one.

We needed the legislation in 1965, the Court argued in its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down the formula that made the act enforceable, but we don't anymore. [excerpt]

Medicare At Fifty Needs To Grow, William H. Lane

English Faculty Publications

In America everybody has a healthcare story. A bill impossible to read, an inscrutable "additional" charge, trouble getting insurance, trouble keeping it, a friend or family member who's fallen between the coverage "cracks." [excerpt]

Post-9/11 Illegal Immigrant Detention And Deportation: Terrorism And The Criminalization Of Immigration, Stefany N. Laun

Student Publications

This paper analyzes the changes in immigration policy since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in terms of how immigrants are viewed in the United States. The goal is to address the recent criminalization of immigration in that the perceptions of terrorists and immigrants have become relatively synonymous since 2001. Although deportations have decreased, immigrant detention has increased significantly. Detention centers pose threats to the basic human rights of the immigrants residing in them, as well as perpetuate the culture of fear enveloping recent immigrants, whether they are legally or illegally in the country, and native United States citizens …

Haydn Doren's Defense In The Court Of The Jarl Of Whiterun, Balgruuf The Greater, Ryan W. Selfridge

Student Publications

This paper is a look at an American Mock Trial Association scenario placed in the world of Skyrim. The piece applies legal concepts regarding forming narratives in the courtroom, something that is absolutely necessary to a jury trial. The unique scenario the trial was held in facilitated the explanation of the rules of evidence in the footnotes, and illustrates how the evidence was admitted to the court.

So We Ran..., Sara R. Bias

Student Publications

This paper tells the true story of a Hungarian refugee who's family fled the communist regime there in 1971. Gabriella Bercze's story reflects on what it was like to live in Hungary under communist rule, and her family's experience in escaping the country, and fleeing to Italy, where they lived in a refugee camp for months before immigrating to the United States in the early 70s.