Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Analysis Of State And Local Requirements For Special Taxing District Fiduciary Managers And How Kentucky Could Improve, Zach Waller

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This paper examines the oversight and training requirements for fiduciary managers within Special Purpose Government Entities (SPGEs), comparing practices in Kentucky with those in a select group of peer states. The analysis highlights notable deficiencies in fiduciary training, enforcement, and accountability standards in Kentucky, which lead to ongoing issues of financial mismanagement. A review of exemplary practices from other states highlights the importance of mandatory training, robust oversight frameworks, and effective enforcement measures in enhancing fiduciary outcomes. Recommended actions involve implementing mandatory fiduciary training programs, strengthening enforcement authority, and improving transparency mechanisms.

To evaluate Kentucky’s oversight of SPGEs compared to …

Managing Kentucky's Coal Severance Tax Decline: Lessons From Other States, Ryan Reed

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Governments levy severance taxes on the extraction of natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas. This can be a substantial source of revenue for these entities, but overreliance on this has led to what is now known through extensive research as the so-called ‘resource curse’. This has been observed to create political instability, corruption, and repression within resource-rich areas. Additionally, it cripples the ability of the area to pursue future non-resource related economic development after the resource is depleted. A Sovereign Wealth Fund has been touted as one such solution to bridge this gap as an intergenerational wealth …

Beyond The Gas Tax: Evaluating Oregon’S Road Usage Charge (Orego) As A Model For Sustainable Infrastructure Funding, Gilles David Kwekam

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Fuel tax revenues are declining nationwide due to electric vehicle adoption, improved fuel efficiency, and long periods without rate adjustments. This erosion has created long-term instability in transportation funding, including in Oregon, where revenue no longer aligns with road use. Road usage charges (RUCs) offer a potential replacement by charging drivers per mile traveled rather than per gallon consumed. However, their success depends less on technology and more on how programs are designed and governed.

This capstone examines which design features make RUC programs effective, using Oregon’s OReGO program as the central case. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) comparing Oregon, …

Targeted Federal Advocacy For Financial Stability: Recommendations For United Way Of The Bluegrass, Jefferson Abney, Lou Hurst

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Advocacy refers to activities undertaken with the intent of influencing policy change. For nonprofit organizations, advocacy can be a critical aspect of furthering their mission. Successful advocacy requires a comprehensive, dynamic understanding of the needs and priorities of stakeholders, as well as an understanding of the political context in which the organization operates and the challenges and opportunities that context poses for its institutional goals. A policy agenda helps nonprofit organizations identify and communicate the most pertinent policy needs for consideration when making decisions around advocacy.

For this project, in response to a request from United Way of The Bluegrass …

Mortgage Lending Discrimination: Racial Differences In A Post-Covid Society, Zachary Owen

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Researchers have studied the disparities of the mortgage lending process extensively, but their research fails to examine the process following the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the aftermath of the pandemic, home sale prices increased, interest rates rose, and rental costs skyrocketed. As such, the housing landscape changed drastically, and research must be conducted to assess new trends and relationships. In this report, I will estimate the relationship between applicant characteristics, such as race, debt-to-income ratio, and income and the outcome of their mortgage loan application and their expected credit score. Prior to COVID-19, Black and White applicants for mortgage loans were …

Public University Gift Management Policies: Building A Best Practice Guide, Cristin Costello

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Currently, no consistent standards exist for how institutions of higher education should manage their non-endowed gift revenue. Good stewardship of gift funds is vital to ensuring the maintenance of donor relationships to create unions that bring further financial opportunities to universities for years to come. Public institutions, as recipients of government dollars, are especially vulnerable to the negative repercussions that could come with the scandal of misappropriated gift dollars. Overall cash donations to higher education have significantly increased in the past few decades as state appropriations fall short and the need to keep tuition rates stable increases. It is more …

Reforming Need: How Certificate Of Need Laws In North Carolina Can Be Reformed To Promote Rural To Regional Health Network Integration, Taylor Fulk

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Across North Carolina, many rural hospitals are facing closures, staffing shortages, and financial turmoil. Many hospitals, such as Morehead Hospital in Eden, NC (now UNC Rockingham), have utilized mergers with larger regional networks (e.g., UNC Health, Duke, Novant, Atrium) to stabilize operations and preserve local access to care. (deBruyn, 2017). However, even after successful integration efforts to bring some rural hospitals into larger regional networks, Certificate of Need laws in North Carolina are preventing these smaller, rural integrated hospitals from expanding their service offerings, thereby driving up healthcare expenditures for residents. As a result, patients experience longer-than-normal travel times and …

Boys & Girls Clubs Of Greater Cincinnati Strategic Plan, Emily Yellman

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

After-school organizations nationwide, such as Boys & Girls Clubs, provide youth with out-of-school opportunities for academic and social-emotional learning. Strategic plans can help after-school organizations maximize their impact. This paper outlines a strategic plan for Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati, specifically to increase the number of members they serve on an average daily basis. The plan addresses both Club member recruitment and retention techniques, and includes specific action items, communication, and monitoring plans.

The Past, Present, And Future Of Adaptive Selling: Toward An Integrative Framework, Nawar N. Chaker, Rhett T. Epler, Gabriel Moreno, Dana Amiri, Elizabeth G. Mcdougal

Marketing Faculty Publications

Adaptive selling represents a notable and influential concept in the marketing literature. Despite being discussed in scholarly research and managerial practice for over forty years and mixed findings about its impact, a comprehensive understanding of the construct of adaptive selling remains missing. To remedy this critical knowledge gap, we conduct a comprehensive review of 188 articles across twenty-seven journals. We combine three approaches in our survey of the literature, including a systematic review, a main path analysis, and a bibliographic analysis. Together, this three-prong review offers profound insights into the state of adaptive selling research by (1) mapping the key …

(In)Attention To Attractive Brand Alternatives, Danielle J. Brick, Veronica L. Thomas

Marketing Faculty Publications

Understanding how consumers maintain their brand relationships has important implications for marketers as committed consumers contribute significant value to firms. In the present research, we propose and test one such way consumers protect their brand relationships, namely through attentional avoidance of attractive alternative partners. Across multiple studies, we find support for our theory that committed consumers avoid attending to alternative brand partners by recalling less about and spending less time focused on attractive alternatives. We further find that this inattention occurs because consumers view the competing brand as a threat to the consumer’s current relationship. In addition, we investigate a …

Sense Of Belonging And Perceptions Of Learning In An Introductory College Course, Ellen Wang

Scripps Senior Theses

A sense of belonging (SB) – the feeling of deep connection with social groups, places, and experiences – has been described as a fundamental, pervasive need among humans (Allen et al., 2021; Baumeister & Leary, 1995). SB, and lack thereof, predicts myriad mental, physical, social, and economic outcomes. Belonging is a complex, multidimensional concept with a breadth of research across disciplines. It has been applied to school contexts in association with academic and psychosocial outcomes. The researcher partnered with an undergraduate course at The Claremont Colleges, and administered electronic surveys at two time points of the course. Students' sense of …

Operation Dumbo Drop: Cultural Memory, And Representations Of The Vietnam War In The 1990s, Sylvie Kromer

Scripps Senior Theses

In 1995, the film Operation Dumbo Drop was released by Walt Disney Pictures. This film, based on a true story of elephants being airlifted across Vietnam in 1968 by the American military, holds a unique position as a rare family-friendly comedy about the Vietnam War. As a reflection of 1990s-era cultural memory of the Vietnam War, the film rehistoricizes and sanitizes the war, following a similar trend in other pieces of media from the same era. Operation Dumbo Drop must be seen in this context and as a product of the moment in which it was made. In taking a …

Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition: Unpacking Gender Roles In Social Media Performances Of "The Good Life", Lauren Mar

Scripps Senior Theses

What do JD Vance, tradwife influencers, and the “sprinkle sprinkle” movement have in common? They all have something to do with the increasing popularity of an apparent return to traditional gender roles. This thesis is an intersectional investigation of women’s gender roles in relation to class and race as they appear in different performances of “the good life” on social media. Through a series of personal essays, this thesis explores how these media examples represent a deeper political unhappiness with present conditions. This thesis takes the time to unpack the different sides of discourse surrounding each subject, and counters the …

The Fight For Education: The Rise Of Indigenous Oaxacan Teachers And Their Role In The 1980s Mexican Teacher’S Movement, Chiara Gutierrez

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the pivotal role of Indigenous Oaxacan teachers in the 1980s Mexican Teacher’s Movement, addressing a significant gap in scholarship that has often overlooked Indigenous political activism in Mexico prior to the 1990s. It argues that these teachers were critical actors whose prior organizing experience, cultivated throughout the 1970s in response to state assimilationist policies (via INI, IIISEO) and discriminatory practices (from SEP, SNTE), enabled them to significantly shape the 1980s movement. Drawing on theories of political identity (Yashar 2006), repertoires of strategies (Rossi 2023), and identity salience (Hunt & Benford), this study traces the development of their …

Finding Futures: Refusing Canva And The Homogenization Of The D.I.Y. Political Post(Er), Cassidy Bensko

Scripps Senior Theses

The convergence of corporate technology and subversive political expression is not new. Canva, like Xerox, is but another made-for-the-office technological innovation employed to political ends. Its ease-of-use has made it a staple tool for students, office workers, event planners, and political organizers alike. However, it is easy to use because it eliminates the need for creative decision-making, empowering users to quickly and easily produce designs that all look the same. This paper asks: Is the homogenization of D.I.Y. political posters, a medium that has historically been characterized by design elements that are as subversive as the politics they represent, indicative …

Sticking Out And Fitting In: Experiences Of Black And Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Students At Scripps College, Grace Njoki Gitau

Scripps Senior Theses

There is a lack of research about the experiences of students of color at predominantly white women’s colleges. Women’s colleges are institutions that have evolved over hundreds of years to support the education of marginalized genders, including transgender women and nonbinary people in recent years. Many women’s colleges have a white majority of students, which can have adverse effects on students of color pursuing their education. Collecting data from Scripps College, a women’s college with 40% students of color, 12 interviews were conducted with students who self-identified as Black or Asian American. Results found that students of color who experience …

Find My Friends: Location-Sharing Ideologies And Peer Surveillance Practices, Nayla Dayal

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the use of Find My Friends in the context of the Claremont Colleges. Students choose to location-share under initial rhetorical justifications of social reciprocity, and community-orientedness, and peer-safety. Drawing from ethnographic interviews conducted with users at the colleges, I argue that the infrastructure of Find My Friends in conjunction with the social and physical proximities of the Claremont environment creates a distinctive condition where users are subject to what I term as a “virtual, neoliberal, and participatory panopticon.” Here, users are seemingly empowered through the application’s neutralizing collapse of reciprocity and hierarchy that are seen in conventional …

Selling Egg-Cellence: An Exploration Of Commercial Oocyte Donation And Genetic Determinism In 21st Century America, Abigail C. Oswald

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of genetic determinism on commercial egg donation in the United States. Through critical analysis of social media advertisements, online forums, and interviews, it argues that reductionist, genetically deterministic thinking drives the commodification of oocytes. Fertility agencies exploit assumptions about heritable traits (health, ethnicity, intelligence) to market "desirable" donors, influencing intended parents' choices and compensation hierarchies. Then the research explores how these same ideas shape perceptions of familial closeness in donor-conceived individuals and their parents, revealing mixed feelings surrounding genetic ties. This study highlights the complex interplay of biology, technology, and social constructs in defining family …

Harming To Healing: Exploring Harm Reduction In Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Treatment, Athena Lewin

Scripps Senior Theses

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is a maladaptive behavior that impacts individuals from all backgrounds, yet existing interventions often neglect harm reduction tactics that may enhance treatment outcomes. This study presents a quasi-experimental design to assess the effectiveness of harm reduction education when combined with a dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) based and motivational interviewing (MI) based counseling for young women (ages 18-26) who meet the criteria for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Disorder (NSSID). Participants will be randomly assigned to either a control group receiving only DBT/MI based therapy or an experimental group receiving both the DBT/MI based therapy and harm reduction education, which will …

The Effect Of Regime Type On Development Outcomes In Bangladesh, Simar Malhotra

Scripps Senior Theses

Bangladesh has been characterized by a turbulent political state since gaining its independence in 1971, moving back and forth between a democracy and autocracy. With this, they have also experienced immense gains in development over the last thirty years, especially within health, education, and female empowerment. This thesis exploits Bangladesh’s unique regime-switching setting to measure the impact of a shift from autocracy to democracy on child health, maternal health, and women’s autonomy within a single-country context. Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program, the analysis finds that a shift from an autocracy to a democracy increases the …

Investigating The Effect Of Ai Use Disclosure And Identity On Faculty Evaluation, Nchimunya Mwiinga

Honors Program Theses

This study examines how professors' disclosure of artificial intelligence (AI) use affects student evaluations and whether these effects vary by professor ethnicity and gender. Participants reviewed identical course materials attributed to professors varying in gender and ethnicity (Asian, Black, Hispanic), with half explicitly disclosing AI use in material preparation. Results revealed that professors who disclosed AI use received significantly lower ratings across all evaluation dimensions. Furthermore, ethnicity interacted significantly with disclosure—Asian professors experienced the most substantial negative impact, Hispanic professors showed moderate negative effects, and Black professors demonstrated minimal differences between disclosure conditions. No significant gender effects were observed. These …

Cultural Factors Associated With Parenting Practices And Wellbeing Among Pakistani Immigrants, Yumna Khan

Honors Program Theses

Immigrant parents experience many challenges when shifting to a new culture, such as rearing children in a culture different from the one in which they were reared. Adjusting to a new culture is associated with aspects of parental wellbeing and the parenting practices that they adopt (Murthy, 2024). This has been studied widely among immigrant parents, but not among Pakistani immigrants. The present descriptive study aimed to address the following questions among a sample of Pakistani immigrant participants (N = 61): 1) What parenting practices and values are embraced by Pakistani immigrant parents and to what extent are these values …

A Discussion Of Positioning Theory: An Interview With Michael Bamberg And Luk Van Langenhove, Pasi Hirvonen, Michael Bamberg, Luk Van Langenhove, Bo Allesøe Christensen

Psychology

Since 2015 a Positioning Theory conference has been held biannually in either Europe or the US. These conferences have become a significant event for scholars and practitioners interested in the development and application of PT providing thereby a platform for discussing the latest research, sharing insights, and fostering collaborations. In the fourth edition of the conference, organised in Finland in July 2024, Professor Van Langenhove and Professor Bamberg both provided keynotes and Pasi Hirvonen and Bo Allesøe Christensen seized the opportunity of engaging both in an interview discussing their insights, contributions and personal thoughts about PT and its history. © …

Combining Internal Family Systems Therapy And Dance Movement Therapy To Treat Survivors Of Sexual Assault, Tierney O'Keefe

Scripps Senior Theses

The mammalian nervous system is primed to connect with loved ones, flee from danger, and shut down when overwhelmed. The nervous system frequently enters a state of chronic dysregulation after a traumatic event, such as a sexual assault. In order to properly heal from such trauma, treatment must address both the body and the mind. Internal family systems therapy and dance movement therapy provide two frameworks to address nervous system dysregulation and restore balance to the system as a whole. This study combines both therapies into a hybrid therapy treatment as an attempt to address the somatic nature of stored …

The Kids Aren't Alright: "Indie Sleaze Revival" And The Commodification Of Subcultures On Social Media, Lauren Mar

Scripps Senior Theses

In 2012, the “indie sleaze” subculture is accepted to have “died” — the same year Facebook bought Instagram. Named retroactively by social media in 2021, the “indie sleaze” subculture and its “revival” online provides a rich ground for investigating how and why social media converts subculture into aesthetics. Drawing on Dick Hebdige’s 1979 theory of subculture, this project considers new understandings of the political, aesthetic, and affective relationships between digital media and subcultures. In examining the evolution of “indie sleaze” from its origins and manifestations in an escapist party scene of the aughts to its online simulations from 2021 to …

Cold Water Immersion: Communal Intimacy And Embodied Wellness, Clara R. Louden

Scripps Senior Theses

On the shores of Lake Superior, many residents of Duluth engage in cold water immersion, or as many call it, "dipping." Through the lenses of embodied experience, magical language and modes of storytelling, and communal intimacy, dipping emerges as a uniquely bonding practice. Dippers cite cold water immersion as an immune-boosting ritual, drawing on biomedical and non-biomedical conceptions of health. Immersion in cold water, especially in nature, requires a strong sense of communal trust. By deliberately encountering danger in their day to day lives, dippers' relationships with each other and with the lake often deepen over time, hinging on the …

Love Is Dead In The Restless West: Hippies, Manson, And California Culture, 1966-1970, Rebecca Allen

Scripps Senior Theses

Though an extreme aberration from most of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s, Charles Manson’s ultimately murderous cult arguably represents something particular about American culture in the late sixties, in which youthful hostility towards the status quo sometimes grew radical, and in the case of the Manson Family cult, extremely violent. By the mid-sixties, more and more young people began to feel alienated by a culture they felt no longer embodied their larger aspirations, and as a result, were drawn to the emerging counterculture that embraced alternative lifestyles that frequently clashed with the traditional sensibilities of their parents’ generation. After …

Of Monsters And Men: Fantasy, Aesthetics, And The Nation In Pan's Labyrinth (2006) And The Shape Of Water (2017), Ally Fleming

Scripps Senior Theses

ABSTRACT: Guillermo del Toro has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most beloved filmmakers due to his ability to blend popular genres with arthouse flair. This is especially true when it comes to fairy tales, a common thread woven throughout his films that are consistently imbued with political commentary on authoritarianism. This is most apparent in two of his most critically acclaimed films, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017). Part of why these films are so beloved is how they utilize popular culture not just as tools to foreground the story’s setting, but also to guide the …

Recovering Twice: An Autoethnographic Account Of Healing As An Injured Athlete, Aleksa Allen

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

This autoethnographic thesis explores the deeply personal and culturally embedded experience of injury, recovery, and identity as a collegiate athlete. It foregrounds the psychological toll of physical injury, the silence around disordered eating in athletics, and the gendered dynamics that render certain injuries and bodies invisible. This narrative is not meant to stand in for every athlete’s experience, but to ask what one individual experience reveals about the broader systems collegiate athletes inhabit. These systems are shaped by performance-based expectations, disposability, and silence. Drawing from lived experience, I trace my own trajectory as an athlete through the tightrope of recruitment, …

The Ascendance Of Influencers: Saints Of Capitalism In The Digital Age, Riley R. Hourihan

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

This thesis examines the rise of social media influencers as modern-day saints within the cultural and economic framework of late capitalism. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from religious studies, media theory, and cultural criticism, it argues that influencer culture does not replace religion but retools its structures—ritual, authority, devotion, and community—for the digital age. Through detailed case studies ranging from Hailey Bieber and Taylor Swift to Ballerina Farm and MrBeast, the paper explores how influencers shape identity, mediate ethics, and mobilize affect through algorithmic rituals and parasocial relationships. Influencers perform a form of digital sanctity that parallels traditional hagiography, guiding followers …