Public Policy Commons^™

Strategies To Improve Child Welfare Worker Retention, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

High turnover among child welfare workers affects child welfare agencies and the families and children they serve. The challenges of high turnover rates are compounded by a lack of research on effective strategies to attract and retain child welfare workers. The primary goal of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QICWD) is to build the evidence base regarding strategies to strengthen the child welfare workforce. We also strive to understand how improving an agency’s workforce impacts the children and families served. The QIC-WD is implementing various workforce strategies within eight sites across the country, carefully evaluating the impacts, and …

Mindfulness And The Need To Minimize The Risk Of Harm: A Proposal To Implement And Enforce Standards For Secular Mindfulness Practice, Michael Falick

Mindfulness Studies Theses

While Western mindfulness practice is indeed beneficial for many participants, the research now clearly demonstrates that for some meditators, there are attendant potential risks. These potential risks to practitioners require a level of care from those individuals (and corporations) that disseminate mindfulness practice. Historically, in traditional Buddhist practice, mindfulness was but one of the eight factors on the Noble Eightfold Path. An important component of traditional practice strongly relies on ethics in the delivery of the practice. A formalized standard of care for modern, secular mindfulness practices, and a method to implement and enforce that standard, will greatly enhance safety …

Black Pregnancy Matters: Racial Reproductive Bias In African American Maternal Mortality, Juhi Khemani

Master's Projects and Capstones

This semester-long research project uncovers how racial biases demonstrated in the reproductive health field, and specifically before, during, and after childbirth, affect the rate of maternal mortality and morbidity for African American mothers in the United States. The rate of maternal mortality for this specific racial group is four times greater as compared to Caucasian women and this discrepancy will be investigated and analyzed throughout this capstone thesis. Interviews were conducted with key figures in the obstetric and gynecological field as well as with Black mothers themselves in an effort to uncover what factors, aside from medical anomalies, are leading …

Who Benefits From Park And Recreation Improvements In San Francisco? A Case Study Of Recreation Center Renovations In San Francisco, Safia Belayadi

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of city policies undertaking public goods investments to benefit disadvantaged communities in San Francisco. Namely, is the process of improving the quality of public goods serving targeted populations, or does it lead to unintended consequences such as gentrification? I take advantage of the timing of city recreation center renovations and the synthetic control method to capture any difference in the proportion of users that is poor before and after the renovation date. I use San Francisco Recreation and Park Department registrant data containing user zip codes and census demographic data …

A Colonial Climate: Climate Change Governance In Puerto Rico, Usa, Justin Grant Pearson

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone project examines the relationship between the colonial structures of governance that persist in Puerto Rico and how they affect the island’s resilience to the onslaught of climate change. Within the frameworks of climate change, governance and colonialism, I set out to analyze the means by which Puerto Rico’s status as a colony of the United States has led to its history and present circumstances that have left a gap in terms of effective governance at the federal and other upper levels of government. The conclusion made is that there needs to be a greater level of focus placed …

Perceptions Of Organizational Politics, Penny Putnam Collins, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are perceptions of organizational politics?

Perceptions of organizational politics (POP) is defined as an individual’s subjective assessment of the degree to which their work setting is believed to be self-serving of some individuals and groups, to the detriment of others (Ferris, Harrell-Cook, & Dulebohn, 2000). A popular and recommended 15-item measure assesses POP through three factors: general political behavior, going along to get ahead, and pay and promotion (Kacmar & Carlson, 1997). Example items from each factor include, “People in this organization attempt to build themselves up by tearing others down,” “Sometimes it is easier to remain quiet than …

Congressional Committee Resources On Space Policy During The 115th Congress (2017-2018): Providing Context And Insight Into Us Government Space Policy, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Article 1 of the US Constitution assigns the US Congress numerous responsibilities. These include creating new laws, revising existing laws, funding government programs, and conducting oversight of these programs' performance. Oversight of US Government agency space policy programs is executed by various congressional space policy committees including the House and Senate Science Committees, Armed Services, and Appropriations Committees. These committees conduct many public hearings on space policy, which invite expert witnesses to testify on US space policy programs and feature debate on the strengths and weaknesses of these programs. Documentation produced by these committees is widely available to the public, …

Covid-19: The Impact On Small Businesses In Nevada, Madison Frazee-Bench, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This Fact Sheet presents data on the number of small businesses (fewer than 250 employees) considered at risk due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The data collected originates from the Brookings Institution, and reports the economic effect of COVID-19 on small businesses in states and counties throughout the nation. Understanding this data can help policymakers and business owners alike make strategic decisions about navigating this crisis. This Fact Sheet focuses specifically on the State of Nevada and its 17 counties.

Taxonomy Of Powers And Roles Of Upper Chambers In Bicameral Legislatures, Carolyn Griffith

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

Bicameral legislatures exist around the world, with power divisions to create checks and balances on the constitutional order as a whole. In the context of constitutional design, this presents a variety of options of roles and rights given to each chamber at each step in both the legislative process and beyond. Taken as a whole, this taxonomy demonstrates there are nearly an infinite number of possibilities for separating powers between upper and lower chambers in bicameral legislatures. Often, these decisions are guided by the history of the country. For each federal legislature that places powers or votes in one chamber, …

The Association Between Family Income And Adults’ Attitudes On Whether The Government Should Help The Poor, Emily Malloy

Honors Projects

This research examines whether people in different social classes have varying views on whether the government should help the poor and whether that depends on political affiliation. Income inequality has become a greater problem in the U.S. in recent decades. This means that the poor could require more assistance and it is important to know if the public thinks the government should help the poor. Knowing what influences public opinion on this issue could help policy makers make informed decisions about whether the government should help the poor. Data from the 2008 (N=2,023) and 2018 (N=2,348) General Social Survey (GSS) …

Spatial Analyses Of Temporary Assistance For Needy Families: Its Responsiveness To Labor Market Performance And Policies During The 2008 Recession, Vicky Albert, Jaewon Lim

Social Work Faculty Research

The major economic downturn of the Great Recession led many families with children to depend on cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. In order to capture TANF caseload growth rates relative to their labor market performance, we developed a responsiveness index which revealed that many of the western and midwestern states were quite responsive to the recession. Using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) tools, we found the presence of strong spatial clusters in unemployment rate and in TANF maximum aid. Several states in the western region were surrounded by neighboring states with higher growth in …

“[Don’T] Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor...” A Study On The Trump Administration’S Unprecedented Reforms To The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program And Their Implications, Savannah Day

Honors Theses

From 2017 to 2020, the Trump administration cut United States refugee admissions tenfold. These reforms come unprecedented to the 40-year-old resettlement program (USRAP). By critically reviewing literature on this topic as well as conducting eight original interviews with five national nonprofits contracted by the Department of State to do refugee resettlement casework, this study sought to identify the implications of the Trump administration’s reforms to the program. Once implications were identified, I used the applied frameworks of program model as well as Michael Worth’s sociological and political science theories of American nonprofit-government relations to better inform and guide the study. …

A Study Of The Social Credit Score System And The Implications It May Have In Chinese Society, Glennis Mcwilliams

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the social credit score (SCS) system of China and the implications that it may have in Chinese society. The SCS is a revolutionary accountability system that is touted to ascertain a person’s trustworthiness of a person. An individualized score is produced by a complex algorithm which takes into account both social and financial behaviors. My research, comprised primarily from secondary qualitative data, discusses the SCS system and analyzes the political, social, and economic implications that the SCS may have on Chinese society. Conflict theory is utilized to help contextualize my findings and explain the increase in authoritative …

Pecking The Hands That Feed Them: How Society And Government Have Allowed The Poultry Industry To Exploit Labor And The Environment In The American South, Sophie M. Kline

Honors Theses

Americans eat an average of ninety pounds of chicken in one year, but where does that chicken come from? Immigrants and African Americans are the majority of the labor population in poultry processing plants located in the American South. In an effort to highlight the racism, sexism, insecurity, and environmental degradation in the poultry industry, I analyze a variety of ethnographies, articles, and science journals as well as U.S Supreme Court decisions and policies enacted by the U.S federal government in this thesis. Upon examination, I answer why society is pecking the hands that feed them. The analysis concludes that …

Smoke And Mirrors: Policy Solutions For Deterring Adolescent Use Of Nicotine Electronic Cigarettes, Austin Davis Fiala

Honors Theses

In recent years, there has been a dramatic spike in the number of adolescents that regularly use nicotine electronic cigarettes. As recently as 2019, a large outbreak of e- cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injuries was observed in adolescents, leading many to question the safety of these devices, particularly when use by adolescents. By way of a literature review, this thesis will examine the history of nicotine and electronic cigarettes in the United States, as well as existing data on the nature of nicotine electronic cigarettes and the ways in which they are marketed.

From these findings, it is …

Agglomeration Economies: How “Y’Allywood” Became The New Hollywood, Joseph Dugan Walker

Honors Theses

Agglomeration economies have gained special attention in recent decades. With the increasing connectivity of our world, specialized regional economies are stronger now than ever before. A specific agglomeration economy that has developed in recent years is the Georgia Film Industry. This region surpassed Hollywood as the premier filming location for the first time since the early 1900s when New York was number one. This thesis analyzes the reasons why Georgia was so successful in attracting the film industry and encouraging its development by comparing infrastructure, film tax incentives, population, and labor development to that of competing states like New York, …

Can Cities Be Feminist? A Cross-National Analysis Of Factors Affecting Local Female Representation In Latin America, Katie Davis

Honors Theses

Women are underrepresented in mayor’s offices and on city councils across Latin America. In this paper, I examine gender-based differences in individual opinions toward running for office in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as conduct a twenty-six country analysis on factors related to female representation in municipal government. Based on these analyses, I make three main conclusions about female local representation in Latin America. The first conclusion is that women in Latin America are significantly less likely to want to run or feel qualified to run for office. The second conclusion is that cross-national variation in the percentage of female …

Understanding The Failure Of Universal Healthcare Proposals In The U.S. And Paths Forward, Nicholas J. Telesco

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. does not have a form of universal healthcare, where the government provides insurance for all citizens, despite attempts dating back to 1915. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010 by President Obama, was a significant expansion of government power in healthcare policy, yet did not guarantee universal insurance. In recent years, universal healthcare proposals have gained traction as the U.S. healthcare system faces issues of low access, high cost, and mediocre quality. In this thesis, I intended to discover the factors that influenced the passage of past U.S. healthcare reforms …

Humor, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is humor?

There are numerous definitions of humor in the research literature, with significant variety among them. A relatively simple definition of humor is something that is said or done to elicit levity or laughter (Dubinsky, Yammarino, & Jolson, 1995). Examples of the more complex aspects of other definitions of humor include expression, recognition, or appreciation of it; the purpose, nature, or target of it; and attitudes toward it. One way of summarizing some of the different perspectives is to define humor as being either (a) positive or negative and (b) directed inward or outward (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, …

Shifting Public Perception: Climate Change Means Living With Fire And Smoke, Robert Froembling

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The urgency to prepare for the climate crisis has never been greater. We are currently living in the sixth mass extinction and the effects are only going to accelerate. We will inherit more wildfires, larger wildfires, and more frequent wildfires.

This piece is not meant to stoke fear in its readers or be depressing, but to shift public perception on what our future holds by evaluating the laws and science presented to us. This piece will look at regional and federal regulations and assess the increased rate of forest fires and the grave public health concerns from stagnant smoke specifically …

Dairy Tales: Global Portraits Of Milk And Law, Jessica Eisen, Xiaoqian Hu, Erum Sattar

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Cow’s milk has enjoyed a widespread cultural signification in many parts of the world as “nature’s perfect food.”1 A growing body of scholarship, however, has challenged the image of cow’s milk in human diets and polities as a product of “nature,” and has instead sought to illuminate the political, scientific, colonial and postcolonial, economic, and social forces that have in fact defined the production, consumption, and cultural signification of cow’s milk in human societies. This emerging attention to the social, legal, and political significance of milk sits at the intersection of several fields of academic inquiry: anthropology, history, animal studies, …

"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free": A Case Study Analysis Of U.S. Immigration Policy And Public Perceptions Of Latin American Immigrants, Erin Thomason

Honors Program Theses

Through this analysis, I hope to shed light on how public perceptions of Latin American immigrants can impact United States immigration policy, and likewise, how changes in United States immigration policy can alter how Americans view Latin American immigrants. My findings may provide some explanation for how we have arrived in the state we are in today, with a president who has pledged to build a wall between ourselves and our southern neighbor, even going so far as to declare a national emergency at the border; a deadlocked Congress unable to pass any sort of protections for Dreamers, despite bipartisan …

Creating Accessory Dwelling Units (Adus) During The California Housing Shortage: Benchmarking Adu Programs Within Selected Bay Area City And County Jurisdictions Against The City Of The Santa Cruz And The County Of Santa Cruz, Ivo Niko Basor

Master's Projects

The State of California is currently in a housing crisis, which many researchers believe stems from a foundational issue with the supply and demand for housing (Tanner, Garcia, Buhayar, 2019). More specifically, California has seen a steady population increase for several decades; however, the growing demand for housing has not kept up with supply. The influx of new people coming to California, and birth rates exceeding death rates, have been defining factors in the growing demand for housing (Public Policy Institute of California, 2018). As high paying jobs are created and bring in top wage earners, and the cost of …

Operational Procedures For Releasing Police Records: A Process Evaluation Of California Law Enforcement Agencies’ Implementation Of Senate Bill 1421, Bianca Madrid

Master's Projects

This research intends to explain how law enforcement agencies in California have implemented operational procedures to comply with the CPRA pursuant to SB 1421 requirements. Because SB 1421 vastly expanded the CPRA, demand for law enforcement record requests has significantly increased in volume. Also, due to key components of SB 1421 which lack clarity in defining specific terminology, each law enforcement agency had to develop its own interpretation of how to implement requirements set forth by the statute. Law enforcement agencies have implemented new requirements to reflect the changes in SB 1421 by establishing working protocols for compliance, developing standard …

Addressing Urban Income Inequality Through Education: A Case Study In Atlanta, Garrett Bronn

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

For decades, the income inequality gap between the rich and poor has continued to expand dramatically, with criticism of existing education systems often at the heart of the issue. Large urban cities are commonly at the forefront of the issue, given the plethora of teacher strikes in recent years. Events such as the 11-day Chicago teacher’s strike in October of 2019 that idled academics and college prep for 350,000 students, have highlighted many current education issues (Hauck, 2019). With underfunded and poorly equipped middle and high schools, students in poor and minority neighborhoods in cities are less prepared academically, ill …

Weaponizing The Epa: Presidential Control And Wicked Problems, Craig A. Jones

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In its broadest sense, presidential control encompasses all the actions, in both word and deed, whereby presidents “go it alone” to adopt policies in the absence of congressional will to do so, and sometimes directly contrary to it. This dissertation studies how President Obama used rhetorical and administrative tools of presidential control to address the “wicked problem” of climate change. The “administrative presidency” and the “rhetorical presidency” are familiar political science terms, but in the case of climate change policy, they appear to be moving policymaking in a new and perhaps profound direction, which this study refers to as “post-deliberative …

Working To Prevent Gun Violence In The United States: The Role Of Policy & Advocacy, Allison Popovits

Political Science & International Studies | Senior Theses

There are several laws in place regarding the legal purchase and possession of firearms in the United States (Giffords Law Center, 2020). There are also laws regarding the prohibited purchase and possession of firearms (Giffords Law Center, 2020). Yet, prohibited persons purchase and possess firearms regularly (Giffords Law Center, 2020). This happens because there are loopholes in the law (Brady United, 2020). For example, federal law requires background checks for gun purchases from licensed firearm dealers, but not at gun shows where sellers may not be licensed. This means that a felon (prohibited purchaser and possessor) buying a gun from …

Death Sentence To Civilians: The Long-Term Impact Of Explosive Weapons In Populated Areas In Yemen, Hi

Global CWD Repository

In Yemen, the massive use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas has not only had deadly consequences for civilians, but has also had a dramatic impact on the infrastructure and systems that civilians depend upon to access essential services. Yemen shows how the long-term or reverberating effects of explosive weapons use, referring to how the destruction of infrastructure has implications for the wider systems of services in a country, are just as deadly in a crisis as injuries from the explosion and even impact a greater number of people than those in the vicinity of the …

Brexit: Britain's Best Bad Option?, Kyle Patrick Moran

Senior Honors Projects

Over the last decade, insurgent Authoritarian-Populist parties have made considerable inroads throughout much of Europe. Up until its 2016 In/Out referendum on continued membership of the European Union, the United Kingdom (UK) was also experiencing such a surge. This paper asserts that regardless of the costs and/or benefits of leaving, “delivering” on Brexit has allowed the UK to navigate today’s resurgent nationalism and Authoritarian Populism comparatively better than its continental counterparts. The UK has been, is today, and by all indications is on track to remain a healthy liberal democracy. This is in no small part due to the collapse …

Preserving Nevada's Higher Education Governance Entity: A Case Study, Deanna Cooper

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the preservation of Nevada’s higher education governance entity through the theoretical framework of punctuated equilibrium theory, which may provide useful information to Nevada’s state policymakers as they seek to address the state’s educated workforce needs via postsecondary governance reform. This study sought to explore the Nevada legislative policymaking process, why policy actors responded as they did and the context in which they responded by examining the life cycle of three unique higher education governance reform bills. Interviews with 12 policy actors and review of over 150 public documents revealed three …