Modeling Social Dynamics Through Coupling Mechanistic Models With Generative Artificial Intelligence, Navid Ghaffarzadegan, Ross Williams, Aritra Majumdar, Niyousha Hosseinichimeh

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Mathematical Modeling Of The Impact Of Lobbying On Climate Policy, Andrew Jacoby, Claire Hannah, James Hutchinson, Jasmine Narehood, Aditi Ghosh, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

No Refuge From The Fields Vol. 2: Revitalization Of Farmworker Housing Research, Manda Laporte

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

Farmworkers in the U.S. are often subjected to substandard living situations. However, since they are primarily seasonal, migrant, or temporary work visa holders, limited attention is focused on their quality of life. Although farmworkers are some of the hardest working people, they are typically exposed to extreme weather and working conditions, have the highest percentage of people among the working poor, face restrictive access to education and health care, etc. While service providers, such as housing developers and healthcare specialists, are concerned about these individuals’ well-being, there is still minimal research available about current farmworker trends. This report seeks to …

Minimum Wage As A Tool For Combatting Renter Burdens, Jack Hanson

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

There is a severe shortage of affordable housing in the United States. In 2011, the number of low-cost rental units (units renting for $800 or less per month) stood around 23.5 million, but by 2017, this number dropped to 19.5 million, roughly a 17% decrease (Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2020). The result is that in 2020, only 37 affordable units exist for every 100 of the nation’s 10.8 million extremely low-income renters (those earning 30% or less of the area median income) (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2021). One contributing factor is that higher-income households are beginning to rent …

Ensuring Equitable Access: Theory And Methodology On Future Grant Application Design For The City Of Bloomington's John M. Scott Health Care Commission, Zachary Fabos

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

This research utilizes qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze perception and opinion of the City of Bloomington’s John M. Scott Health Care Commission’s grants program and its application process among recipient agencies and other participants. Data, gathered through surveys and semi-structured interviews, in 2020 and 2021, between representatives of each agency and the researcher are meant to inform the development of new approaches encouraging a wider reach of the Commission’s grants program in McLean County, Illinois. Questioning the theoretical purpose of merit, bureaucracy, and performance in an application process, this research aims to create a more accessible program for agencies …

The Effects Of U.S. Fiscal Policy On Income Inequality ( 1913 – 2013 ), J.D. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Income inequality in the United States has reached a level not seen since the Great Depression. Some academics and lawmakers suggest that growing inequality is due to changes in fiscal policy, arguing that cuts in taxes and government spending have reduced the inequality-mitigating effect of fiscal redistribution. While older research provides some support for this argument, newer research suggests otherwise. This disagreement in the literature led me to ask, How has fiscal policy affected income inequality in the United States during the last century? This study seeks to answer this question using data from Piketty et al. (2018), which includes …

A Teacher Shortage And Lack Of Representation In The Classroom: A Neoliberal And Critical Race Study Of The Broken Teacher Pipeline And The Impact On Education Majors, Sara Piotrowski

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher education attrition is a largely understudied topic, especially from the perspective of the college student. What factors prevented education majors from graduating with a teaching degree? There are countless studies about teacher attrition within the first five years in the classroom (DeAngelis et al., 2013; Kopkowski, 2008; Office of Postsecondary Education [OPE], 2015), but the research is sparse when it comes to the retention rate of education majors. Why do students get accepted and enter college as education majors and then not graduate with a degree to become a teacher? The purpose of this study was to consider factors …

The Effects Of Admission To Jail On Crime Rate In Mclean County, Illinois, Derek Conley

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

The relationship between crime and incarceration is growing in interest in the United States. The United States incarceration rate is often double or triple the rate of other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The hardline approach the United States has taken on crime has many citizens and academics questioning its effectiveness on achieving safer communities. Traditional theory suggests incarcerating individuals for deviant behavior reduces the crime rate through the mechanisms of incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution. However, some scholars believe concentration of incarceration in neighborhoods disrupts the social fabric of the neighborhood and produces the opposite of …

The Relationship Between Sense Of Community And Job Satisfaction Among Employees In Campus Recreation Center, Mina Woo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Sense of Community (SOC) and job satisfaction of employees in Campus Recreation Center (CRC), and the impact of demographic information, including gender, job position, and job tenure, on the extent of their SOC and job satisfaction. This study utilized quantitative method and developed a questionnaire with two scales: Spector’s (1985) Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), and Sense of Community Index 2 (SCI-2) created by Chavis, Lee, and Acosta (2008). The results indicate positive correlation between SOC and job satisfaction among the employees in CRCs. On the other hand, the results …

Pathways, Not Punishment: An Annotated Snap Employment And Training Advocacy Toolkit For Policy Newbies, Angela Eastlund

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

For someone brand new to public policy advocacy, the concept can seem broad and putting it to practice can seem vague. In part, this is because the spectrum of public policy advocacy is broad and contains a vast variety of actions under its umbrella. The Chicago Jobs Council’s policy advocacy strategies around SNAP Employment and Training that are recounted in this toolkit are shared in context with the intent of shedding some light on the why, how, and when particular strategies are utilized. Our hope is that the examples shared here can be used to inform anyone that is a …

Beyond The Sentimental Cliche: How Local Communities Impact Residents And Shape Public Opinion, Kate Brunk

Theses and Dissertations

The Trump administration has recently established a rule that will prohibit abortion services providers from receiving Title X funds for the non-abortion family planning services they provide. Little public opinion research has focused on family planning and reproductive health topics outside of abortion. I find statistically significant experimental evidence that increasing perceptions of local need for a local reproductive health clinic caused subjects to be more supportive of federal reproductive health funding for local clinics. I did not find statistically significant correlational evidence that objective measures of poor reproductive health at the county level influence public opinion on federal reproductive …

Determinants Of Usaid Spending, Austin J. Moser

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

This paper examines the determinants of USAID’s foreign aid disbursements from 2002-2016. Three noteworthy findings emerge. First, USAID foreign aid is based more on political considerations rather than the policies of recipient countries. Second, foreign aid is determined by location and political history. Third, this pattern emerges across all categories of USAID disbursements.

Pretrial Release And Failure-To-Appear In Mclean County, Il, Jonathan Monsma

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

Actuarial risk assessment tools increasingly have been employed in jurisdictions across the U.S. to assist courts in the decision of whether someone charged with a crime should be detained or released prior to their trial. These tools should be continually monitored and researched by independent 3^rd parties to ensure that these powerful tools are being administered properly and used in the most proficient way as to provide socially optimal results. McLean County, Illinois began using the Public Safety Assessment-Court^TM (PSA-Court or simply PSA) risk assessment tool beginning in 2016. This study culls data from the McLean County Jail …

The Impacts Of Commercialization On Depth, Breadth, Scope, And Quality Of Outreach In Mozambique: A Case-Study, Courtney Johnson

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

In today’s microfinance, scholars and policy-makers across the world have emphasized the importance of financial sustainability, or the ability of a microfinance institution (MFI) to finance its operations. In order to reach financial sustainability, MFIs embrace commercialization, a process where an MFI undergoes restructuring in order to open up avenues to capital. Yet, scholars are concerned that this emphasizes on financial sustainability will cause the social good objective to suffer, a phenomenon known as “trade-off.” Indeed, studies have found that commercialization impacts MFI outreach in various ways. To my knowledge, no research has attempted to understand the impacts of commercialization …

Talking The Walk: An Autoethnography Of Pedestrianism In Chicagoland, Andrew Kuka

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

This autoethnographic account of pedestrianism in Chicagoland aims to remind us of the sensory, social, and emotional experiences walking can provide, and how an environment centered around automobiles affects those experiences. It utilizes participant observations and refers to literature from a wide range of disciplines to construct a story of walks in downtown Aurora and Chicago, Illinois that illuminates factors at play in the shaping of the pedestrian experience in urban areas.

Narrative In Police Communication: The Art Of Influence And Communication For The Modern Police Organization, Chelsea Fray

Theses and Dissertations

Violence in the City of Rockford, Illinois and surrounding cities has made the Rockford Police Department’s communication vitally important for shaping the future of the community. The primary objective of this project was to gain a greater understanding of how the local police department utilizes one particular communication channel: social media. While some research examining law enforcement’s use of social media exists, this study is unique as it specifically applies Fisher’s (1984) narrative paradigm and key concepts related to public relations functions including relationship building. The analysis revealed that the department does utilize some narrative concepts, but could certainly reevaluate …

Us Aid In The Arab World Fact Checking Us Democratization Rhetoric Against Reality, Nicholas Canfield

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

Many factors have been used to explain durable authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and one of the most important external influences of MENA governments’ structure is support from the United States. The US balances security concerns and democratization rhetoric in the region, but much literature promotes that security concerns are the most important factor for US support in MENA. Using US aid as a proxy for US support, this study finds that US aid actually increases democratization in MENA, and counterintuitively, aid to MENA military and police forces seems to have a stronger democratization effect than …

Establishing Sustainable Community Garden Interventions With Aid From Health Promotion Organizations, Rachel Joann Buenemann

Theses and Dissertations

Community garden interventions provide policy, system and environmental change at the community level to establish health behaviors, which act in contest to obesity risk factors. Limited research examines factors, which influence the sustainability of community garden interventions. Therefore, in this study, a sample of 10 Midwestern community gardens associated through funding from a health promotion organization in 2013, collected data through the interviewing and surveying of 10 garden administrators and surveying of 12 garden volunteers. The study identified garden benefits perceived by garden administrators and volunteers to include contributions to social justice, continued education, enhanced social cohesion, increased access to …

Community Land Trusts: A Help Or Hindrance To Community Development In The United States, Andrew Kuka

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

The availability of affordable housing in the United States continues to be an issue for Americans who are on the brink of homelessness, rely on housing subsidies, or struggle to pay their mortgages or rents. These issues, as well as the gentrification threat that community development poses to low-income residents can have deleterious effects on democratic participation and community development efforts. One proposed solution to these problems is the implementation of more community land trust programs nationally. This paper will assess the practicality of CLTs, and what such an implementation would mean for individuals, government entities, community members, and community …

Policy Dissemination: Public Administration Theory And International Organizations | A Case Study On The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities In The Kingdom Of Morocco, Rachelle Ann Wilson

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

With the advent of international organizations comes international law. Unprecedented at such a global and influential level, there is no theoretical framework within public administration explicitly focused on administrative structure and strategies for the implementation of international law. Consequently, the current administrative literature and theoretical framework must be looked to and transposed, as much as possible, to the international stage. This paper explores public administration theory and how it would manifest if applied to international policy implementation. By taking a closer look into the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its implementation strategy within the …

Illinois Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of Advanced Placement® And Dual Credit Courses, Glenn A. Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Advanced Placement® and dual credit coursework have been associated with positive educational attainment outcomes for students and yet opportunity gaps exist for children to access these programs depending on the school they attend. The many benefits of Advanced Placement® and dual credit coursework for students make it necessary that any education agenda by policymakers should include avenues to increase access to these programs for students. This study explored Advanced Placement® and dual credit coursework in Illinois through the perceptions of teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members using a cross-sectional survey. The survey was administered to examine whether there are …

Strategic Housing And Vacant Land Development Plan For A More Viable Detroit, Ryan W. Hebert

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

In recent years Detroit has seen the beginnings of a revival with coordinated blight removal efforts from the city and large downtown development investments from foundations, such as the Kresge Foundation, and key players in the corporate sector such as Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans. While these efforts have led to tremendous changes and revitalization in the downtown and midtown areas, as well as along the riverfront, much of the city’s neighborhoods remain left to solve their housing and land use crises. What follows is an attempt to build upon the work of others in finding creative …

A Vision Of Peace Through U.S. Leadership: President Jimmy Carter's Moral Foreign Policy Vision And The Panama Canal Treaties, Holly L. Welsh De Paula

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy and his administration’s campaign to promote the ratification of the Panama Canal treaties from 1977 to 1978. I argue that President Carter’s administration developed a coherent foreign policy vision that was inspired by moral convictions and aimed to promote international peace. The fundamental aspects of this vision are reflected in the Panama Canal treaties. During the turbulent Senate debate over the treaties, opposition arguments attacking President Carter’s moral policy encouraged the Carter administration to favor more pragmatic arguments in support of the treaties, which ultimately obscured President Carter’s overarching foreign policy vision. …

Too Little Stem Workforce In The United States: Framing The Discourse In A Global Setting, Patrice-Andre P. Prud'homme

Theses and Dissertations

Policymakers and industry leaders are claiming that the U.S. has an insufficient number of STEM graduates. As the rhetoric of a shortage of skilled scholars and employees in STEM-related fields expands, there is a plethora of publications that refers to a phenomenon dating back to the 1950s. Nonetheless, this new paradigm presents a critical challenge to policies and programs that surround STEM education in countries around the world. While STEM, including the underlying human capital component is a major factor of economic growth in the United States, it is also in Australia and Germany. The policy analysis study is presented …

Road To Recovery: Recidivism And The Mclean County Drug Court, Julia Neaves

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

This study explores the effectiveness of the McLean County Drug Court at reducing time to recidivism using survival analysis techniques. Data on 146 drug court participants was collected using the county’s proprietary case management systems. Findings suggest that length of drug court programming significantly reduces time to recidivism. Unfortunately, black offenders and offenders with prior criminal history were found to return to the prison system more rapidly than other groups, suggesting that drug court programming may not be addressing the greater systemic issues present in the criminal justice system. These findings collectively inform policy recommendations provided to county administrators and …

Can We Do Better When Students Are A Threat To Self? A Review Of Legal And Policy Implications For Current Practices On College Campuses, Jennifer Ann Hemingway

Theses and Dissertations

Many colleges/universities believe that a student who is a threat to self increases campus risk and liability (Appelbaum, 2006; Massie, 2008; Pavela, 2006 & 2010). This study uses integrated policy analysis to (1) define the policy problem regarding college students who are a threat to self; (2) analyze the current legal opinion of the courts regarding institutional liability when college students are a threat to self; (3) examine the 2010 change to the direct threat provision in Title II legislation; (4) determine the implications for institutional policies and practices. The analysis illustrates, according to the courts and changes in Title …

A Democracy, If We Can Keep It: Democratic Engagement Policy In Higher Education, Maegan Gorham

Theses and Dissertations

Students will be called upon as American citizens to be knowledgeable, engaged, contributing citizens, and higher education plays a part in the development of this role. Engagement must surpass simple volunteerism in order to more fully realize the potential benefit of democracy and democratic engagement activities. In turn, institutions must respond effectively and responsibly, making informed decisions about educating all students in the safest manner possible. This exploratory policy analysis, with embedded legal research, explores the policy issue, "Is higher education the appropriate venue for instruction on democratic engagement and, if so, do the benefits and rewards of instruction on …

Illinois Teacher Evaluation Student Growth Component: A Predecision-Making Policy Analysis, Joshua Robert Olsen

Theses and Dissertations

ILLINOIS TEACHER EVALUATION STUDENT GROWTH COMPONENT:

A PREDECISION-MAKING POLICY ANALYSIS

Joshua R. Olsen

122 Pages May 2015

Public school districts in Illinois are going to face massive changes to their evaluation systems in the coming years. Thanks to the adoption of the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010 and Senate Bill 7 of 2011, teacher evaluation must contain student growth as a significant factor, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year. Not only must student performance on tests become part of the evaluation of teachers, but, moreover, teacher evaluation will play a greater role in the hiring, retention, and release of …

Troubled Waters: Security, Economic Development, And The Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands., Kevin Mckenzie

Theses and Dissertations

This project uses a case-study approach to determine the causes of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Island dispute between Japan and the People's Republic of China.

Mckinney Vento Legislation: A Policy Analysis Of The Evolution Of Homeless Law In Illinois, Cathleen J. Weber

Theses and Dissertations

This policy analysis looks at the evolution of homeless education laws both through federal legislation and state laws. A policy analysis was utilized to show changes through the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Act.

One aspect of this analysis utilized qualitative data from four individual administrators in four central Illinois school districts. The qualitative data reviewed the training received by each administrator and the policies guiding their enrollment procedures.

Another aspect provided in this analysis is the changes established in response to court cases filed when school districts violated the provisions of the McKinney-Vento Act. The reauthorizations that followed each finding …