The overall reduced funding from public education in the United States has sparked a backlash across the country. Citing inadequate resources, low pay, and an inability to control the direction of their classroom, teachers in seven states (West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, and Washington) halted instruction time...
College students are learning to make increasingly complex financial decisions, facing high tuition and living costs while having limited means to make a living. Studies show that most college students lack sufficient financial literacy. They need a well-designed financial education, especially if they are low-income, first-generation students whose parents are...
The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Human Trafficking Task Forces bring together federal, state, and municipal governmental agencies and law enforcement agencies (“agencies”), and non-profit organizations and other service providers (“organizations”), for one main purpose: to reduce the trafficking of humans in...
The role of science in marine policy, and environmental policy in general, is a debated topic. Currently, there is an increasing desire for transparent and participatory democracy that involves more input from local residents and other non-experts. These demands often conflict with the increasing complexity of problems and the real...
Scientists say that climate change is very likely to cause more frequent and more severe weather events. In order to understand how communities respond to changing weather patterns, an exploration of the connection between extreme weather events and climate change awareness, collective action, and policy is warranted. This case study...
This study uses the Health Impact Assessment approach to determine the health impacts of allowing accessory dwelling units in Benton County, Oregon. A literature review presents the health benefits of accessory dwelling units in urban areas and identifies the potential negative health effects in rural areas. Five accessory dwelling units...
Housing is the single most important environmental factor associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity (United Nations, 2007). Most Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors, and an estimated two-thirds of that is spent in the home (Klepeis et al., 2001). Studies show a link between substandard housing...
Persistence, the ability for institutions to help students matriculate from their first year to completion, has been a major concern for underrepresented racial minorities (URMs). Among URMs, Black and Hispanic students are the least likely to be retained, graduating at 38 percent and 45.8 percent respectively (Shapiro et al., 2017)....
Persistence, the ability for institutions to help students matriculate from their first year to completion, has been a major concern for underrepresented racial minorities (URMs). Among URMs, Black and Hispanic students are the least likely to be retained, graduating at 38 percent and 45.8 percent respectively (Shapiro et al., 2017)....
This study investigates the barriers faced by fats, oil, and grease (FOG) as an energy feedstock in the state of Oregon. FOG, which typically originates in food service establishments (FSEs), historically has been treated as waste, yet it also has the chemical make up to be an energy feedstock in...
This essay provides a snapshot of major policy change in the siting of radioactive waste depository facilities in South Korea during 2005. After 20 years of failing to locate a radioactive waste depository facility, South Korea finally succeeded in locating a facility through a major policy change of delegating decision...
The benefits of electrification are widely discussed in energy and development literature, but little research to date has studied the impacts of household electricity access on women in particular. Women make up the majority of the world’s poor and are also disproportionately affected by energy poverty because of their social...
Under the label “Supported Employment,” services that promote competitive, integrated employment (CIE) for working-age adult with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been federally funded since the 1980s, alongside other more traditional day habilitation and segregated or sub-minimum wage employment services. However, since the early 2000s, over 30 states have adopted...
Michigan’s State Department of Education issued a resolution in 2003 calling for all public K-12 schools to repeal their American Indian mascots and in 2013 the Michigan Department of Civil Rights filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education in response to school districts failing to do so....
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness in Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a federal program that aims to significantly increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Oregon has been receiving GEAR UP funding since 2002. In 2008-2014, Oregon received its second round...
A commitment to diversity is now quite common in the missions of colleges and universities. One of the primary barriers to hiring a diverse faculty is the role that implicit bias, or the case of identifying flawed ideas as reliable choices systematically, plays in the search and selection process. At...
Timber supply from Washington State may be reduced by non-industrial private forest owners' diverse purposes for holding timberland, which is a concern since they control 38% of Washington forestland. This study is an exploratory analysis of the effect of land and human infrastructural characteristics on landowners’ likelihood to harvest, precommercially...
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with 35% of its people live below the poverty line. 70% of Afghans have no access to electricity, and 90% of those without electricity live in the rural areas. Since 2002, more than $4 billion have been spent on Afghanistan’s...
Several distinctive environmental movements of the past century have had major influence on public policies in the United States. More generally, social movements that push environmental issues into the limelight have the potential for significantly altering public perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs, thus driving big policy changes. This thesis examines the...
From an organizational perspective, economic incentives are often used as a tool to induce behaviors which align the goals of individuals with the organization. As a fundamental concept, varied types of merit pay have been utilized to keep organizational and individual motives in sync. This can be illustrated in contracts...
Oregon State University and the City of Corvallis have recently embarked on a three-year series of meetings and forums (‘Collaboration Corvallis’) designed to increase collaboration between the two organizations and other relevant stakeholders as well as find solutions to worsening problems in the areas of parking, noise and student population...
Historically, rural economic development has focused on attracting outside firms or increasing exploitation of natural resources, often without equitable or lasting returns to the community. The Rural Wealth Creation framework was developed as a systems-based approach to assessing and leveraging local assets for the creation of lasting wealth in communities....
Attempts to site nuclear waste storage facilities are highly contentious. Given that nuclear related facilities are the most commonly opposed types of proposed land uses, one might expect to observe strong contentious interactions between proponents and immediate community members. In some cases, what is expected is not necessarily observed; why?...
One of the greatest challenges in the West is the sustainable management of limited water resources. In recognition of localized responses to natural resource challenges, there has been considerable work in the area of adaptive capacity and collaborative governance to help understand a community’s capacity to manage change. This study...
Global warming is an increasingly serious problem around the world. To mitigate the influence of global warming on people’s lives, the Obama Administration put an emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate global warming. The adoption of energy efficient vehicles, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles...
In 2008, China released a new green initiative, the Green Securities Policy, to increase the sustainability of Chinese capital markets. One of the integral components of the policy is the new environmental disclosure regulation which prescribes Chinese listed companies in the 14 highly polluting industries to report required environmental information....
Oregon is one of several states to implement a new and innovative minimum wage policy. The Oregon policy defines three regions with each having a separate initial minimum wage and a different set of incremental increases over the next seven years. This paper explores how this policy change may impact...
Despite unprecedented access to information, the American public has been shown to have difficulty distinguishing factually correct information from misinformation. Misinformation can, and does, alter voting patterns and policy preferences which impact the range of policy solutions available to policymakers. In recent years, media organizations have begun specialized ‘fact-‐checking’ operations...
Although the last decade has seen an increase in research to understand civic engagement and public participation in terms of generating involvement, less research has been conducted to understand the structures of participation and effects on and of current participants. Many local governments in the United States use boards, committees,...
Over the last several decades, the narrative around international development has shifted away from neoclassical models towards an increased focus on sustainability and community-driven participatory approaches. However, there is a lack of research looking at whether these theoretical concepts manifest in practical realities that avoid the imperialistic flaws of previous...
On June 23, 2016 the United Kingdom (UK) held a vote to determine whether to remain in the European Union (EU) or withdraw. The British exit from the EU, or Brexit, is the antithesis of two centuries of progressive social work theory developed by a series of prominent social workers...
For some incarcerated individuals, when they are released from prison they are released to an officer in the parole and probation department for a specified period of supervision while in the community. During this supervisory period, these individuals, also known as parolees, are able to develop pro-social skills and behaviors,...
In 2011 the California State University (CSU) system’s overall four-year graduation rate was 16 percent, which is far below the national rate of 26 percent among similar institutions. In response to the low graduation rate, the California legislature passed 2 statutory bills meant to further expand access, while improving college...
People in the US and Europe eat the most meat worldwide, lose or waste about 20% of this product overall, and they waste the most food per capita. Food waste is currently addressed as an issue of volume, so programs and policies target foods that are wasted more by weight...
Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources has been identified by governments throughout the world as a key strategy for reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing sustainability and resiliency, and supporting local economies. Despite these benefits, this transition has been slow in the United States, causing some...
Over the past three years recreational cannabis legalization has emerged as a major policy issue in the United States. The novelty of this movement has created a gap in the state of literature focusing on the examination of cannabis legalization policy processes. Using a two-pronged Multiple Streams approach, this study...
Definitions of child poverty and measurement approaches are directly linked to poverty reduction strategies. The definition determines the measure and the measure, in turn, informs policies, which can subsequently reshape measurement approaches. Applying human rights approach and using method of document analysis, this research explores how the conceptualization and measurement...
Group Engagement Theory describes the relationship between citizen perceptions of policy, individual identity and status judgements, and individual group engagement decisions. Utilizing a least likely crucial case methodology, this paper uses the case of Josephine County, Oregon to determine the validity of the Group Engagement Theory prediction that citizen identity...
Environmental scientists, land managers, and policy actors are increasingly presented with high-stakes high-uncertainty problems stemming from human-ecosystem interactions. To help address these problems, scientists frequently use models that produce enormous geospatial and temporal datasets that are constantly modified and often seek input from communities outside their discipline. To assist scientists—as...
The Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (BCCA) was created in response to a degrading natural environment coupled with a weakening community. The BCCA is a community owned 5,609-acre forest located in the heart of the Blackfoot watershed in Western Montana. Fearful of development and the creation of subdivisions, landowners banded together,...
To face large scale environmental challenges like climate change, the Obama administration has turned to renewable sources of energy to offset the carbon emissions that result from traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas. However, finding suitable locations for large-scale renewable energy developments has proven difficult due to strong...
Since the 1980s, NGOs have created a necessary niche for themselves within developing nations addressing poverty “traps” such as: lack of infrastructure, corruption, environmental degradation, conflict, disease, educational paucity, and gender inequality. Due to increasing issues of dependency and failed development projects resulting from a top-down, organizational structure, international nongovernmental...
Despite widespread public support for renewable energy development, the siting of wind energy facilities can prove problematic due to opposition from surrounding communities. I propose a unifying framework to explain community response to wind energy development – showing how concepts from environmental sociology related to local biophysical and socioeconomic conditions...
Climate change increases weather unpredictability, threatens communities whose livelihoods depend on natural resources, such as rural communities. Utilizing a Community Capital Framework (Flora and Flora, 2013) and Governance of Complex Adaptive Systems (Duit and Galaz, 2008), this study concentrated on the role of cultural and political capital in supporting rural...
The state of Oregon is divided in important ways along rural and urban lines, including the way people make a living, individual and group relationships with the natural world, political ideologies, and personal values. This rural-urban divide has assisted policymakers in making decisions that balance the needs of Oregonians on...
Whether media plays a contributory or a conduit role in the policy process has been a salient focus among policy scholars. If media plays a contributory role in the policy process, it not only shares similar policy core beliefs with advocacy coalitions, but also drafts and disseminates stories including policy...
A growing concern among the international community is that civil war has become the most common form of armed conflict worldwide. To prevent further bloodshed, more research is urgently needed to understand the causes of conflict and most successful strategies for peace. The bargaining theory of war proposes that former...
Commercial fishing is deeply embedded in the economy and culture of many coastal communities. Recent ecological, economic, and regulatory changes impacting fisheries are likely to have important consequences for this industry and the communities it supports. The objective of this study is to improve understanding of coastal community resilience through...
Homelessness has many faces, several of which society will never truly see. The homeless population has begun to change during the recession, as families lose their homes to foreclosures due to high interest mortgages or become evicted from rental dwellings as one or both wage earners lose employment. The initial...
The Oregon wine industry is growing and becoming increasingly valuable to the regional economy. As with many production industries, the wine industry has faced concerns around its environmental practices and community impact. The use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and associated wastewater run-off are a few issues vineyard managers experience....