This study examines student voting at Oregon State University (OSU) – Oregon’s public, land-grant university – in state elections from 2006-2010. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), Oregon Senate Bill 951 (2007), and Oregon House Bill 2880 (2011) seek to increase university student voting. In particular, SB 951...
The purpose of this study is to examine the rhetorical efforts of President George W. Bush in defending his administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Specifically, the study attempts to determine the president's underlying motives when he defended the National Security Agency in a December 2005 radio address by applying Kenneth Burke's...
On January 8th, 2011 tragedy struck in Tucson, Arizona. A gunman opened fire on Representative Gabrielle Giffords' "Congress on Your Corner" event, wounding thirteen and killing six ("Arizona Shooting"). Four days later, President Obama spoke to a grieving crowd at the University of Arizona's McKale Memorial Center. This study seeks...
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...
Purpose
In modern American society, educational television (ETV) plays an increasingly substantial role in the daily out-of-classroom education of the American youth and the decision to utilize youth based ETV is often in the hands of parents. However, many parents are unaware of the potential risks associated with early childhood...
In recent years there has been a growing debate in the field of public administration over whether public employees are essentially self interested. Public choice theory contends that all people are self-interested utility maximizers, and as a result that public employees would seek to use their position for personal gain....
Public opinion is central to the formation of public higher education, particularly public higher education funding policy. However, extant research indicates that an enormous gap exists between public higher education policymakers and the general public, resulting in misunderstanding and serious challenges for public higher education funding. This analysis builds on...
A considerable amount of research and literature exists that attempt to explain the policymaking processes of central banks and, in particular, the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB). As with those studies, the purpose of this study is to explain FRB policymaking in order to understand FRB policy shifts during financial crises....
This essay provides a snapshot of sustainability and acceptability of wave energy and eight other electricity-generating energy sources in Oregon. Since “sustainability” is an important point of view in decision-making, the paper is centered around the concept. Although there is no consensus on the definition of sustainability in the academic...
This paper will examine the outcomes in child well-being across placement options for children who have experienced child abuse and/or child neglect. Specifically, this paper will compare the relative success of children placed with kin relatives versus those placed wit non-kin adoptive parents. Success is determined by a variety of...