Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

The Impact Of Unionization On University Performance, Mark Cassell, Odeh Halaseh

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This study examines faculty unions’ impact on the organizational efficiency and effectiveness of public four-year institutions of higher learning. The article theorizes the causal connections between faculty unions to higher education performance. The study also presents results of a cross-sectional time series analysis and a cross-sectional analysis of higher education performance using data from the Department of Education’s Integrated Post Secondary Data System (IPEDS) spanning more than two decades and over 430 public universities and colleges. We find support for the view that unionization improves organizational efficiency and effectiveness. At the same time the research raises important methodological and substantive …

From Ivory To Babel To A New Foundation, Richard Boris

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

During my 12 years at the NationalCenter for Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, I observed with increasing frustration the inability of administration and faculty leaders—union and governance—to fully grasp, analyze, and find pathways out of public higher education’s current existential crisis.

My many years of observing leaders of public higher education lead me to the inescapable conclusion that together the leaders share a culture that shorts strategic planning, thinking, and boldness and instead favors ad-hoc, incremental acceptance of the ever-changing, slimmed-down state of affairs. The rarified bubbles of presidential cabinets and union boards symbiotically promote policies that, …

Number 2 - The Role Of Western Democratic System Of Governance In Exacerbating Ethnic Conflicts In Africa: The Case Of Ghana's Democratic Dispensation, 1992-2012, David Kwasi Bansah

Peace and Conflict Management Working Papers Series

This paper interrogates the influence of Western forms of democracy on ethnic conflicts in Africa through a case study of Ghana’s adoption of multiparty democracy between 1992 and 2012. It discusses the transition of African traditional systems of government before, during, and after colonization. The paper also shows how democracy, by definition and in terms of governance, cannot solely be a Western idea since many African societies had democratic elements in their systems of government before the arrival of the Europeans. Relying on qualitative secondary data, and the analysis of fierce and acrimonious competition that have characterized multiparty democratic elections …

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 …

S. R. Nathan [Singapore, President], S. R. Nathan

Digital Narratives of Asia

S. R. Nathan was the 6th and longest-serving President of Singapore. A career civil servant, Mr Nathan served in several key ministries, under Singapore's pioneer leaders. He shares with DNA his experiences working with the leaders who built modern Singapore, as well as insights into the sometimes tricky situations in which he found himself.

Economic Equity In Communities Of Color: The Effectiveness Of Minority Contracting Initiatives, Matthew Chorpenning, Ann Curry-Stevens, Greg Schrock, Nathen Lamb

Center to Advance Racial Equity Publications and Reports

As the movement for racial equity takes hold in Portland, Oregon, we look for examples of where the living conditions of communities of color are improving. One concrete initiative that many point to is the array of minority contracting efforts whereby minority-owned businesses are supported by various levels of government in ways that are entrenched in both policy and practice. This report looks at the most recent data on minority contracting, as well as minority hiring policies, research-based best practices and a case study of the Sellwood Bridge project and determines that much more can and should be done to …

Transportation System Impacts On Bicyclists' Air Pollution Risks: Considerations For System Design And Use, Alexander Y. Bigazzi, Miguel Figliozzi, James F. Pankow, Wentai Luo

PSU Transportation Seminars

Health risks associated with air pollution uptake while bicycling are often cited as a potential drawback to increased bicycling in cities. This seminar will provide an overview of how roadway and travel characteristics impact bicyclists' uptake of traffic-related air pollution. Specific considerations for planners and designers of urban transportation systems to mitigate risks for travelers will be discussed. In addition, the extent to which bicyclists themselves can unilaterally reduce their pollution uptake will be described. This seminar synthesizes findings from a recently completed doctoral dissertation at Portland State University and from the broader literature.

Research Brief: "Empty Promise: Black American Veterans And The New Gi Bill", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study found that despite the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 expanding educational benefits for military veterans who have served since September 11, 2001, African American veterans are utilizing GI benefits less than other ethnic groups. In practice, institutions of higher education (IHE) must recognize that veterans have acquired life skills that can be assessed and worthy of academic credit, and employers should seriously consider African American veterans as potential employees, regardless of whether they have competed a college degree. In policy, the DoD and the VA might partner together to better ensure that African American service members …

Agenda: Seeds Of Change: Responding To Global Change In A Bottom-Up World, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment, University Of Colorado Boulder. School Of Law, Posner Center For International Development, Resolve (Firm), Newmont Mining Corporation

Seeds of Change: Responding to Global Change in a Bottom-Up World (Martz Winter Symposium, February 12-13)

Sponsors: Posner Center for International Development, RESOLVE, Inc., Newmont Mining Corporation, and Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment.

Conference moderators, panelists and speakers included University of Colorado Law School professors Phil Weiser, Sarah Krakoff, Britt Banks, and Lakshman Guruswamy.

This conference is made possible through the generous support of donors who sponsored this year’s Martz Sustainability Symposium (including Newmont Mining Corporation) and those who have invested in our Clyde O. Martz Endowed Fund for Natural Resources Management (including Brian Dolan and Davis Graham and Stubbs LLP). The Martz Natural Resources Management Fund was established in the memory …

Symposium - The 9 Billion People Question: The Challenge Of Global Resource Scarcity

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Food As A Key Resource For Security And Stability: Implications Of Changes In The Global Food System 1950-2000, Bryan L. Mcdonald

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Food security remains an urgent problem affecting the national security and interests of states, as well as the human security of people and communities around the world. This article examines the changing landscape of food security threats and vulnerabilities by examining three sets of concerns that are converging to amplify, disrupt, and transform food relations: nutrition, food safety, and global environmental change. Ensuring food security will require utilization of a range of capabilities from the state, private, and non-state sectors to confront world food problems and build a sustainable and resilient world food network.

World Poverty And Food Insecurity, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The article draws upon the insights of Yale philosopher Thomas Pogge to suggest a way that we might think about the structural inequities in the global economic order that produce food insecurity. The article argues that chronic undernourishment is not a function of food scarcity, bad weather, or simply bad luck. Rather, it is a function of international political and economic arrangements that systematically benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. The article concludes with several legal and policy reforms that the United States and the European Union can adopt to reduce the burdens that our societies place …

The Future Of Food Assistance: Opportunities And Challenges, Erin Lentz

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The past decade has seen a radical remaking of direct food security interventions and an expanded understanding of preventing undernutrition. Today, there are more food assistance choices; researchers have identified the first 1000 days as a critical window for life-long cognitive development and health outcomes; and our understanding of the value of more tailored, nutritionally-specific interventions has expanded. The opportunities resulting from these findings can generate more effective food assistance programs. However, benefits from these findings will only be achieved if policymakers and practitioners clarify and prioritize among objectives and seek ways to build greater programming flexibility into the current …

The World Trade Organization Agreement On Agriculture And World Food Security, David Blandford

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

This article discusses the nature of food insecurity in poor countries, its causes, and how these can be addressed. Disciplines are imposed on domestic agricultural policies through World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, in particular the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), resulting from the Uruguay Round negotiations that were completed in 1994. The AoA provides considerable flexibility for countries to pursue a range of economically efficient policies aimed at food security objectives. However, it limits the use of some policy measures, such as price supports and input subsidies, that can be costly and inefficient, and also has negative environmental consequences. There is …

Land Is Not The New Oil: What The Nigerian Oil Experience Can Teach South Sudan About Balancing The Risks And Benefits Of Large Scale Land Acquisition, Scott P. Stedjan

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Recent global food price volatility combined with the growing use of agricultural land to produce biofuels has sparked a global scramble for land, with Sub-Saharan African countries serving as the main targets for investors. Derided as “land-grabbing” by those opposed to the practice, the phenomenon of large-scale acquisition of farmland by governments and private investors sparked a global debate since the global food crisis of 2008. Although international investment in agriculture plays a vital role in development and poverty reduction, large scale international investment poses some serious risks to both communities and international investors. Because there are no signs of …

Not In My Backyard: Unconventional Gas Development And Local Land Use In Pennsylvania And Alberta, Canada, Nathaniel L. Foote

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Pennsylvania has struggled with rapid expansion in the state's unconventional oil and gas sector with the development of the Marcellus Shale formation. Likewise, Alberta, Canada has experienced similar growth. Yet Pennsylvania and Alberta's approaches to local land use and resource extraction differ considerably. This paper discusses each region's experience with oil and gas development, and contrasts their approaches to land use regulation in this context. The paper concludes that the Canadians' approach holds important lessons for Pennsylvania.

Law, Ethics, And Public Health In The Vaccination Debates: Politics Of The Measles Outbreak, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The measles outbreak of early 2015 is symptomatic of a larger societal problem–the growing number of parents who decide against vaccinating their children. This failure is causing the resurgence of childhood diseases once eliminated from the United States.

This article explores the legal and ethical landscape of vaccine exemptions. While all states require childhood vaccinations, they differ significantly in the types of religious and/or philosophical exemptions permitted, the rigor of the application process, and available review mechanisms. States with relaxed exemption policies disproportionately experience more outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease.

Vaccine exemptions are an illustration of the “tragedy of the commons,” …

Nebraska Births And Fertility Rates By County Classifcation Based On Largest City Size And Metro And Nonmetro Areas, David J. Drozd

Past Publications

Sources: Vital Statistics Reports, NE Dept of Health & Human Services; DP-1, 2010 Census, U.S. Census Bureau; 2013 Metro Definitions, OMB.

Note: Fertility Rates are Births per 1,000 Women Aged 15-44 (this is based on average births between 2008 and 2012 and 2010 Census counts)

Foreword, Scott P. Stedjan

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Geopolitics Of Resource Scarcity, Kent Hughes Butts

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

From Scarcity To Abundance: The Changing Dynamics Of Energy Conflict, Michael T. Klare

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Energy security and geopolitics have played a pivotal role in international affairs for a very long time, ever since the development of oil-powered vehicles and weapons of war. Until recently, the geopolitics of energy have largely been governed by perceptions of scarcity—the assumption that oil and other energy reserves were relatively limited, and that competition over their exploitation would lead to recurring crisis and conflict. However, the recent utilization of advanced extractive technologies—including deep-sea drilling and hydraulic fracturing—have resulted in unexpected production gains and fostered a sense that abundance, rather than scarcity, will govern the future energy picture. …

U.S. Aid To Agriculture: Shifting Focus From Production To Sustainable Food Security, Marc J. Cohen

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Since the 1960s, agriculture has waxed and waned as a key theme of U.S. international development assistance. In the 1970s, the United States and other donors focused on “growing the pile of food” through the use of high-yielding cereal grain varieties, mineral fertilizer, and synthetic pesticides in developing countries—the Green Revolution. This led to huge productivity increases and lower food prices in Asia and Latin America. But donors paid less attention to questions of equity, environmental sustainability, and gender equality. Due to increased food availability at lower prices, the United States and other donors reduced their focus on aid to …

Global Hunger And The World Trade Organization: How The International Trade Rules Address Food Security, Terence P. Stewart, Stephanie Manaker Bell

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Causality In Contemporary American Sociology: An Empirical Assessment And Critique, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Michael Strand, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Thomas Buschman, Meghan Davis, Amanda Varela

School of Peace Studies: Faculty Scholarship

Using a unique data set of causal usage drawn from research articles published between 2006–2008 in the American Journal of Sociology and American Sociological Review, this article offers an empirical assessment of causality in American sociology. Testing various aspects of what we consider the conventional wisdom on causality in the discipline, we find that (1) “variablistic” or “covering law” models are not the dominant way of making causal claims, (2) research methods affect but do not determine causal usage, and (3) the use of explicit causal language and the concept of “mechanisms” to make causal claims is limited. Instead, we …

Conversations On Compassion, Colleen Mills, Linda J. Lieder

Citizens for Peace

No abstract provided.

Guide To The 1948-1990 Archive Of The Inter-University Case Program, Edwin A. Bock

Public Administration - All Scholarship

Between 1948 and 1990, the Inter-University Case Program (ICP)—named during its early years “The Committee on Public Administration Cases” (CPAC)—published five case books and 170 individual studies of government policy-making and administration. The Program was created by educators who had spent over three years working in Washington wartime agencies. They wanted to show their post-war university students an aspect of public administration that was largely ignored by prewar textbooks: namely, the civil servant’s role in the making and carrying out of public policies. And they wanted to demonstrate to professors of public administration who had not had personal experience at …

Fifth Dimensional Battlespace: Terrorism And Counter-Terrorism Implications, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This essay in the terrorism futures series will highlight the emergence of fifth dimensional battlespace, its implications for both the conduct of terrorism and counterterrorism operations, and, to some extent, interactions with terrorist disruptive targeting capabilities. Additionally, the larger civilizational context in which a dynamic yet little recognized terrorism and counterterrorism ‘fifth dimensional capabilities race’ that is taking place will be highlighted. While initially this concept may seem abstract, the importance of understanding its implications will become apparent.

Strategic Insights: Would A Post-2011 Residual U.S. Force In Iraq Have Changed Anything?, W. Andrew Terrill

Articles & Editorials

No abstract provided.

Politics, Economics And Communications, Brendan O'Rourke, John Hogan

Other

Presentation /Seminar on Political Communications and Public Affairs research with a focus on elite formation its measurements, its representation and its social construction .

Strategic Planning Development Team Meeting Notes 2/5/2016, Strategic Planning Development Team

Resource Archive

‘Values’, ‘Vision’ and ‘Mission’, the components of the Strategic Plan, are presented to the group. The meeting participants discussed word clusters used to display what components of the strategic plan mean to the Portland State University community. After analyzing what PSU means to the community, the group then reflects themselves what does PSU mean to them..