Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons^™

The Custody Of "Unaccompanied Children": A Critical Analysis And Recollection Of Narratives, Pamela Baez

Master's Theses

Under the administration of Barack Obama in 2014, began an influx of “unaccompanied children” migrating to the United States from Central America and Mexico. To respond to the large number of children crossing the border, the Obama administration decided to fund existing shelters, facilities, and learning centers to house and process these children. Currently, these facilities are still operating under the Trump administration. This paper will clarify the process of unaccompanied children and the role of the Department of Homeland Security and most importantly, the contributions of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Through an analysis and recounting of narratives from …

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, …

Let Them Eat Lunch: The Impact Of Universal Free Meals On Student Performance, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Michah W. Rothbart

Population Health Research Brief Series

Children need healthy and balanced meals to perform well in school. Universal Free Meal programs improve English and Math test scores and may even reduce obesity among middle school students. District and school leaders nationwide should consider adopting this program.

Minority Vetoes In Consociational Legislatures: Ultimately Weaponized?, Devin Haymond

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

In societies emerging from or at risk for conflict, dividing power among rival groups—called power-sharing—can be an appropriate arrangement to maintaining peace. But how can groups, who are often emerging from violent conflict, trust sharing a government with rival groups that were just recently shooting at them?

A potential solution is the minority veto, which is allows minority groups to block the government from harming those groups’ vital interests. But what sorts of change blocking mechanisms constitute a minority veto? Who gets the veto power, and when can they be used? Do minority vetoes function as effective incentives for ensuring …

Models Of Pre-Promulgation Review Of Legislation, Rachel Myers

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

Pre-promulgation review seeks to harmonize legislation with the constitution by engaging in a dialogue among government institutions that seeks to prevent unconstitutional legislation from becoming law. Pre-promulgation review is an integral part of the lawmaking process, and this study seeks to unite scholarship on different methods of this review in a comparative survey to assist lawyers, policymakers, and scholars. A wide range of institutions may fulfill the function of reviewing proposed legislation for compliance with the constitution or other codes of national importance prior to their passage into law. Because of this diversity, scholarship on the topic of pre-promulgation review …

“[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. …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Equity-Based Resource And Service Allocation For The City Of San José’S Department Of Parks, Recreation And Neighborhood Services, Patrick Córdova

Master's Projects

The purpose of this research is to examine the literature and public agency practice to understand how public agencies are using equity to allocate funding for services to provide an adequate level of service to stakeholders based on need. The research question is, based on existing research and other governmental agency models, how can the City of San José’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) develop guidelines to allocate its resources within an equity-based framework?

Getting To Zero: An Evaluation Of Santa Clara County’S Hiv Prevention Program In Comparison To Selected Counties, Nupur Rathore

Master's Projects

Research Question: This research project compared SCC with nine other counties in California to determine, how SCC’s outcome of its GTZ program varies in comparison to other selected counties? The project also focused on determining how SCC’s spending for its GTZ differed from the other selected counties?

Credit For Prior Learning Among Student Veterans Across Selected Campuses Of University Of California And California State University: A Managerial Audit, Janani Chandrasekar

Master's Projects

What variations are observed in the implementation of Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) for student veterans across different public universities in California? What gaps, if any, exist in SJSU’s CPL program when compared to other campuses, and what recommendations can be made to build a more efficient process?

Ensuring Resilience: Efforts To Retrofit Soft-Story Housing In California, Griffin Weizer

Master's Projects

The intention of this study was to determine what soft story housing retrofit ordinances have been offered by local governments in the State of California since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and to analyze the components and provisions therein to determine possible trends and best practices.

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 …

Educating Children And Youth Experiencing Homelessness By Funding Local Implementation: Compliance For Positive Student Outcomes Under The Mckinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Darius Jamal Brown

Master's Projects

This project focused on two LEAs that received EHCY funding in California, and aimed to answer the following research question: How does receiving EHCY funding affect the services directed at fulfilling the goal of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of ensuring free public education for children and youth experiencing homelessness in two California counties?

Veteran Service Organizations’ Declining Membership And How To Fix It, Ben Sok

Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to provide VSO’s struggling to recruit and retain members with a resource to assist them in identifying potential members, their barriers for membership, what programs and services they desire, and solicit recommendations for improvement. By focusing on TAL and analyzing their issues, a standard survey pool can be developed so that similar organizations can create personalized surveys that are concise, efficient, and effective as well as reducing respondent burden as much as possible. Such a survey is more likely to be completed by veterans and their families offering more data for analysis useful in …