Transitioning a Marquee Orientation and Transition Program for Increased New Student Engagement and Retention Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

One mid-sized public flagship institution in the Mountain West was forced to abandon a brand-new marquee orientation and transition program, which had contributed to the first increase in first-time student retention numbers in a decade.  As educators around the world were faced with similar challenges, three main concerns arose for this school: cancellation of all in-person instruction and events indefinitely in March 2020, a long-term downward trend in enrollment and retention, and a lack of adequate space to host in-person orientation activities.  This paper seeks to discuss the ways in which these obstacles were overcome, and share the important lessons learned for consideration as colleges and universities continue to grapple with the uncertainty of onboarding our next cohort of students in fall 2021

More than Movies: Art House Cinemas in the Digital Age

This thesis offers a cultural and industrial mapping of US-based art house cinemas—small theatrical exhibitors specializing in foreign, independent, documentary, repertory, or non-commercial studio film—since the digital transition in projection technology near the turn of this century. For much of their history, art house cinemas offered so-called “sophisticated” film-going experiences catered to appeals of cultural distinction and cinephilia. But in reaction to the challenges posed by the costs of digital projection, which threatened to and in some cases did close small exhibitors, the sector sought to re-imagine itself. Many art houses restructured under nonprofit organizations with operational mandates far different from those of their predecessors. This study attends to these reconfigurations. The following chapters draw from a rich tradition of exhibition scholarship, theories of cultural taste-making, and on-the-ground discourses among art house administrators. I consult film programs, promotional material, newspaper articles, personal interviews, and industry data reports in positing a reconceptualization of art houses as multi-purpose cultural institutions, not mere receptacles for leisure and encounters with foreign-language film. Central to this reworking has been Art House Convergence, a resource network of art houses and their allies that has promoted professionalization, nonprofitization, and politicization of the art house space since 2006. I also focus on two case studies: The Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon, and FilmScene in Iowa City, Iowa—theatres whose transformations over the last 15 years speak concretely to the larger trajectory of the sector. Where distinction and cinephilia once reigned as pillars of these exhibitors, dynamic and diverse approaches to programming, community-centric services, and left-liberal cultural projects have ascended to the fore. By creating an aggregate portrait of a new industrial common sense, comprised of changing practices and ideas about cinema’s place in cultural formations, this project points to a pressing need to view art houses differently than previous models allow and to provoke a rethinking about their role in film culture today

A multifaceted approach to understand highly-identified fans’ experiences of sport activism

The pandemic altered the socio-contextual environment. During this time, society was exposed to structural violence experienced by Black individuals at the hands of the police. The subsequent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests coincided with the return of professional sport in 2020 and became embedded in its programming. This thesis sought to answer how sport activism influences highly-identified fans’ lived experiences of sport. As an interpretivist, it was essential to acknowledge the importance of sociohistorical factors contributing to fans’ experiences. Therefore, semistructured interviews served to answer how fans restructure their consumption in response to changing needs, motives, and socio-contextual environments to contextualize the guiding research question. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive thematic analysis to make sense of the data. Chapter 2a utilized U&G and SDT and revealed that participants had difficulties satisfying their needs, especially their relatedness, due to the pandemic-imposed restrictions meant that participants. Sport transformed into a social activity and a means to escape the reality of the pandemic through increased sport consumption. Individuals who increased their sport consumption primarily to socialize and escape did not sustain these habits as the pandemic lessened, whereas autonomously-motivated individuals maintained their elevated consumption levels. Chapter 2b utilized social identity theory and social identity complexity to examine fans’ experiences of sport activism via their social identities. Participants interpreted the BLM protests through their multiple identities, informing their response to the intersection of sport and activism. All participants noted some form of social identity threat resulting from sport activism – either from the sender (i.e., the organization, team, or athlete) and/or the subsequent conversations that resulted from the demonstrations. Participants with less complex (i.e., less inclusive) structures faced heightened identity threats. Participants with more complex (i.e., more inclusive) group characterizations used sport activism as a vehicle to further action and typically expressed tolerance toward the outgroup. Chapter 3 synthesized the two studies' findings noting that seeking relatedness increased social identity threats or conformity behavior and that mentions of escape were used by participants as a maintenance tactic to oppose BLM in sports while distancing their white identity from their stance

Work and Climate Change Report 2011-2021 (PDF)

This PDF copy of the WCCR website is one long textual document containing every post from the website's 10-year existence (September 2011 - December 2021). It is captured in this way to allow for text-searching and retrieval of relevant posts

Policy Success in Canada

This book offers twenty-two in-depth case studies of public policies and programs of both provincial and federal governments in Canada that have been markedly successful. Using a common analytical framework, each case study describes the history and evolution of the policy, and assesses the extent of its programmatic, process, political and long-term success. Combined, the cases provide a unique collection of stories about instances in which Canadian institutions and policymakers actually worked as taxpayers would hope they always do. The volume provides a key and open access resource for teachers and researchers of both Canadian and comparative public policy

Policy Success in Canada

This book offers twenty-two in-depth case studies of public policies and programs of both provincial and federal governments in Canada that have been markedly successful. Using a common analytical framework, each case study describes the history and evolution of the policy, and assesses the extent of its programmatic, process, political and long-term success. Combined, the cases provide a unique collection of stories about instances in which Canadian institutions and policymakers actually worked as taxpayers would hope they always do. The volume provides a key and open access resource for teachers and researchers of both Canadian and comparative public policy