Faculty Recital: Lynn Eustis with Kevin Jones, November 11, 2014

This is the concert program of the Faculty Recital: Lynn Eustis with Kevin Jones performance on Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Liederkreis, Op. 39 by Robert Schumann, Galgenlieder by Vincent Bouchot, Mélodies passagères, Op. 27 by Samuel Barber, and Two Songs on Texts by the composer by Olivier Messiaen. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Occupational Therapy and Health Sciences News, January 2014

2013, a year in review. In OT we have 2 new faculty members, Sharon McCloskey and Lola Halperin. The Health Sciences program is pleased to welcome Dr. Raja Staggers-Hakim. Student events. Faculty achievements

Federal Land-Use Policy and Resettlement in the Great Plains: An Experiment in Community Development During the New Deal Years, 1933-1941

In 1933, the United States federal government authorized the National Industrial Recovery Act to help the country recover from the Great Depression. Section 208, Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act authorized the creation of subsistence homesteads to aid in the recovery of destitute rural families and the urban unemployed. Between 1933 and 1941, the United States federal government authorized the construction of 207 rural and urban resettlement communities to house impoverished farm families and unemployed urban workers. The projects were located throughout the United States, including in the territories of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The resettlement communities were designed as small-scale farmsteads that allowed the residents space to grow produce and raise livestock for family consumption with the goal of keeping the settlers off government relief rolls. The Division of Subsistence Homesteads, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and the Resettlement Administration were the primary federal agencies with administrative oversight of the various projects. Despite the support of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the resettlement communities, they never did receive congressional support and as a result the Resettlement Administration was defunded in 1937 by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act. This dissertation examines the federal agencies involved in the resettlement projects’ creation and describes the communities built within the United States with an emphasis on the communities built in Nebraska. Advisor: David Wishar

A Group Music Therapy Method to Promote Mentalization Skills in Clients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Abstract This paper investigates the development of a group music therapy method by adapting elements of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) to help clients with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). A prominent characteristic of NPD is a deficiency in empathy. The fostering of empathy and emotional awareness forms the basis of MBT. Music therapy offers a means to explore these skills on a nonverbal level. This work is even more impactful in a group setting. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of literature specific to music therapy and NPD. Furthermore, despite the availability of writings separately concerning NPD, MBT, group therapy, and music therapy, there is little research synthesizing these topics, indicating that additional study is warranted. At this author’s internship placement at a private psychiatric hospital, there was a significant number of residents with high narcissistic traits. Since mentalization theory is one of the hospital’s foundational orientations, the development of this method aligned with both the institutional philosophy and the needs of the population. The resulting intervention plan consisted of nonverbal musical dialogues performed by residents and observed by peers. These were followed by verbal discussions guessing at their emotional and relational content. In addition, I incorporated weekly receptive group sessions aimed at deepening connections among residents and building trust in the therapeutic relationship. The results suggest that this intervention indeed facilitated the MBT component of affect elaboration by engaging the group’s interest and engendering a variety of interpretations and perspectives

Why is staff turnover an issue for humanitarian organisations and what are the strategies to this matter ?

Since many years, staff turnover has been a major concern for humanitarian organisations. This complex issue increases stress, generates loss of institutional memory, and affects the quality of the programmes. The lack of qualified and experienced profiles that organisations have to face adds more weight to the concern. However, staff turnover has positive consequences too. In fact, it allows humanitarian organisations to acquire new skills and ideas to keep up with the change that operates in the sector. The objective of this thesis is to understand what have encouraged humanitarian organisations to address this concern and their strategies to reduce it. Few literature reviews are available in contrast to private sector on the same matter. Therefore to obtain information interviews were conducted with several humanitarian organisations. The results show that for most of them turnover is an issue and they have implemented strategies to retain their employees, which focus on organisational factors mainly. Furthermore, the results outline the main reasons for organisations to tackle the turnover and bring to light why the issue is so complex. Although for most of the organisations interviewed staff turnover is a concern, there are still improvements to do. Recruitments should be update and broaden while local staff taking more into consideration. Finally, this issue cannot be solve only by measures implemented from humanitarian organisations. Some stakeholders have their role in this matter, and should be aware of that

La tricherie au CÉGEP : causes et solutions possibles

Abstract : Academic dishonesty is not new and is a worldwide phenomenon. It is a problematic that every academic institution must deal with and higher education is, unfortunately, not immune to cheating. Studies pertaining to cheating have been done in various universities, but none have been done on CEGEP students and none have tried to establish a link between in-class examination cheating and types of assessment. The following quantitative research studied the link between students’ stress levels and types of assessment while addressing in-class academic dishonesty. Students’ ethics regarding cheating was addressed as well as their personal experiences with cheating during in-class examinations. An online anonymous survey was used in order to gather data. This research has helped understand that JAC students are under a lot of stress and are no different than other higher education students since they too, also cheat in large numbers. Nonetheless, students have an ethical opinion regarding academic dishonesty. They recognise it is wrong and they are capable of labelling cheating behaviour according to its gravity. Despite all of this, we have discovered that when students help each other cheat during written in-class exams, it is not judged as severely. Yet, students who admitted cheating do not overlook cheating as much as those who do not cheat. Honest students tend to view cheating behaviour as a much more serious issue. This research has also highlighted the fact that only a few students believe assessments used in their courses are effective at evaluating their level of understanding of course concepts. Students have been extremely open pertaining to their behaviour. They have explained why they cheat and how they do it. This research has also confirmed that technology plays a smaller role in academic dishonesty than previously assumed. This contradicted what was said in the literature. Undoubtedly, results obtained through our survey indicate that the types of exam given influences students’ incentive to cheat. In fact, 81 percent of students admitted cheating because of a loss of memory. Since memorization is not the primary tool required to complete an openbook exam, students tend to cheat less during this type of examination as they have access to their course material. Open-book exams (primarily) as well as cheat-sheet exams (secondly) generate the lowest incentive to cheat amongst students as well as the lowest stress level. Finally, we were surprised to learn that most students prepare for an open-book exam. We initially thought the opposite. The aim of this research was to find solutions to decrease students’ incentive to cheat. Our research results show that open-book assessments are a good solution to decrease academic dishonesty and stress levels during in-class examinations.La tricherie à l’école n’est pas un phénomène nouveau ni spécifique à un pays. Elle est internationale. Il s’agit d’un problème qui touche toutes les institutions scolaires y compris celles des études supérieures qui ne sont pas immunisées contre la tricherie. Plusieurs études au niveau universitaire ont été effectuées sur ce phénomène mais aucune n’a été menée dans des CEGEP et aucune n’a tenté d’établir un lien entre la tricherie et le type d’examen donné aux élèves. La présente recherche quantitative a étudié le lien entre le niveau de stress des étudiants et la tricherie durant des examens écrits en classe. Parallèlement, notre étude s’est également concentrée sur l’éthique des étudiants concernant la tricherie ainsi que leurs expériences personnelles de triche. Un questionnaire électronique anonyme (Survey Monkey) a été utilisé afin d’amasser les données. Notre étude a confirmé que les étudiants de JAC sont très stressés et ne sont pas différents du reste des étudiants aux études supérieures car, eux aussi, trichent. Malgré cela, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’ils possèdent une certaine opinion éthique concernant la tricherie. Ils reconnaissent que tricher est immoral, injuste et ils sont capables d’étiqueter ce comportement selon sa gravité. En revanche, nous avons découvert que, lorsqu’il s’agit d’entraide au moment d’examens, ils jugent ce comportement de façon moins sévère que lorsqu’un étudiant triche en solitaire, sans l’aide d’un autre. Dans la même ligne d’idée, les étudiants qui admettent tricher sont plus tolérants voire indifférents face à ce comportement que ceux qui ne trichent pas. Les étudiants honnêtes jugent la tricherie de façon beaucoup plus sévère. Notre recherche a également souligné le fait que les étudiants trouvent que les méthodes utilisées afin d’évaluer leurs connaissances et compréhension du matériel enseigné sont inefficaces. Nous avons été surpris de l’ouverture et de l’honnêteté des étudiants concernant leurs comportements déviants. Ils nous ont expliqué pourquoi ils trichaient et comment ils le faisaient. Par exemple, ils trichent afin d’améliorer leurs notes mais également selon le type d’examen donné en classe. De plus, lorsqu’ils n’ont que la mémorisation comme outil lors d’un examen ou lorsqu’ils sont incapables de se rappeler de faits et données, ils ont tendance à tricher plus fréquemment. En outre, 49 pour cent des étudiants ont admis partager le scénario d’un examen pratique et considérer cela comme une tricherie négligeable. Notre recherche a également confirmé que la technologie joue un rôle plutôt secondaire lorsque les étudiants trichent. Nous pensions le contraire et ce fait contredit également ce qui a été rapporté par d’autres recherches. Conséquemment, les résultats obtenus par notre recherche démontrent que le type d’examen utilisé influence les comportements déviants des étudiants. Ainsi, 81 pour cent des étudiants ont admis tricher lorsqu’ils sont incapables de se rappeler la matière couverte dans l’examen. Puisque la mémorisation n’est pas nécessaire afin de compléter un examen à livre ouvert, les étudiants ont tendance à moins tricher lorsqu’ils passent ce type d’examen puisqu’ils ont accès à leurs livres et notes de cours. De plus, les examens à livre ouvert ainsi que les examens où un aide-mémoire est permis, sont les types d’examens qui génèrent le plus bas taux de tricherie ainsi que le plus bas taux de stress. Finalement, nous avons également été surpris d’apprendre que, contrairement à ce que nous croyions au départ, la grande majorité des étudiants étudient pour un examen à livre ouvert. Le but de notre recherche était de trouver des solutions afin de diminuer la tendance des étudiant à tricher. En répondant à notre questionnaire en ligne, les étudiants ont été très francs et nous ont aidé à mieux comprendre les raisons qui les poussent à tricher. Ils nous ont également éclairé quant à de nouvelles idées et techniques que l’on pourrait utiliser afin de réduire la tricherie lors d’examens écrits et abaisser leur niveau de stress. Les résultats obtenus par notre recherche sont on ne peut plus clairs : les examens à livre ouvert sont une très bonne façon de réduire l’incitation à la tricherie. C’est pourquoi nous croyons que la première solution pour freiner les tricheurs serait de faire passer à nos étudiants des examens à livre ouvert avec pour conséquences positives une réduction importante du stress et un encouragement à ne pas tricher

Report on the Regional WCRP/SPARC Workshop with focus on the Southern Hemisphere and South America

From 26-27 November 2012 the Workshop on Southern Hemisphere and South American Climate was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, back-to-back with the SPARC SSG Meeting, hosted by the “Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera” (CIMA). [...]Fil: Vera, Carolina Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera; Argentina. Instituto Franco-Argentino sobre Estudios de Clima y sus Impactos; ArgentinaFil: Pulido, Manuel. Instituto Franco-Argentino sobre Estudios de Clima y sus Impactos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Naturales y Agrimensura. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Carril, Andrea Fabiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera; Argentina. Instituto Franco-Argentino sobre Estudios de Clima y sus Impactos; Argentin