FROM CRISIS TO EMPOWERMENT: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Social challenges tear at the fabric of the African American family, revealing complexities that identify a de facto leader, the African American woman. She exists in a chasm of overt circumstances which heavily influences her successes. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that motivated seven female African American community college graduates to persist throughout crisis and to ultimately reach their academic goals and graduate. Using a qualitative narrative design, the study involved semi structured interviews with seven African American women who employed community colleges and other support strategies to accomplish appropriate responses to crises, identify practical support mechanisms, and achieve professional advancement in order to attain professional success. Findings provide a clearer picture of the elements these participants feel foster and enhance their abilities to stay enrolled, to persist and to graduate from college. The study findings illustrate the importance students place on their family’s support, the support of their faith and the support of college faculty and staff. The Bates Model for the Initial Creation of a Community College Counseling / Crisis Intervention Center is presented to foster the development of a support service center which will allow community colleges to better meet the needs of these non-traditional students

The Relationship of Men’s and Women’s Partner Violence to Personality and Psychopathology

The aim of the current project was to test two competing views on the study of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), namely the feminist and violence perspectives. The feminist perspective views IPV as having an individual etiology and should not be considered within the context of other types of aggression (see for example, Dobash & Dobash, 1979). The violence perspective sees IPV as something to be studied alongside other aggression by examining the characteristics and psychopathology of the perpetrator (see for example, Felson, 2002; 2006; 2010). The first part of the thesis used IPV and same-sex aggression measures (a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale; Straus, 1979) alongside a measure of controlling behavior (Controlling Behavior Scale; Graham-Kevan & Archer, 2005) to test a number of hypotheses derived from the feminist theory of IPV – including Johnson’s (1995) typology. Results provided contradictory evidence for this theory including, but not limited to, women’s preponderance to perpetrate IPV and controlling behaviors at a greater frequency than men, the lack of significant differences in classification for Johnson’s typology and the finding that same-sex aggression perpetration was associated with controlling behaviors towards a partner. The second part of the thesis then went onto to explore studying IPV within a violence perspective. This involved examining associations between aggression and other personality and psychopathology variables to determine their predictive power. These chapters were further presented within Finkel’s (2007) I3 framework as either impelling or inhibiting forces. The series of studies involved examining both stable and dynamic risk factors that have been found in the previous literature to be associated with IPV and same-sex aggression namely: (1) attachment styles and psychopathic traits; (2) self-control, empathy, anxiety and perceived physical retaliation and (3) paired variables of cost-benefit assessment and instrumental-expressive beliefs. Results revealed several important findings for the theoretical literature and implications for treatment and interventions. Firstly, IPV and same-sex aggression shared similar significant risk factors; this indicates the similar etiology of aggression in general and provides support for studying IPV within the “violence perspective”. Secondly, men and women shared some similar risk factors. The differences supported the view that women have better inhibiting control than men and that the inhibiting forces within Finkel’s framework may be more useful in predicting women’s aggression with the impelling forces being more useful for men’s aggression. Thirdly, it demonstrated the importance of both impelling and inhibiting forces in predicting aggressive behavior, the latter of which has received relatively less research attention. Finally, and following on from the previous point, the current project has drawn attention to the research potential of Finkel’s framework. The implications here involve the way IPV perpetrators are treated within both the criminal justice system and in terms of intervention programmes. This project has provided contradictory evidence to the feminist theory that underpins the current treatment programs in use. Suggestions for future research and how interventions can be improved are discussed

The First Parish, Bridgewater, Massachusetts

The history and records of the First Parish Unitarian Church of Bridgewater, as found in the church records and other sources. First Parish Bridgewater Unitarian Universalist was originally called the South Parish or South Precinct. It was created by an act of the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts in April, 1716. The actual effective date of incorporation was June 1, 1716. In that period a town and its church were considered one and the same. The new congregation in what would later be called the Town of Bridgewater was a mostly amicable split off from the First Church in what is now called West Bridgewater. However, it is believed that the new congregation continued to attend services at First Church while its own building was being constructed. That new building located on the same site as the current structure was ready in August of 1717 and the congregation moved into its new home with a dedication service held on August 14, 1717.The sermon that day was given by the Rev. James Keith, the minister at First Church. The South Parish called and ordained its own minister, the Rev. Benjamin Allen, who gave his first sermon a few days later. Rev. Allen served until 1730 when Rev. John Shaw became minister and he served until 1791, an astounding sixty years. Rev. Zedekiah Sanger D.D. followed in 1788 (before the aged Rev. Shaw actually died) and he served until 1818. Rev. Sanger was instrumental in the establishment of the Bridgewater Academy. Both Rev. Shaw and Rev. Sanger are buried in the Old Bridgewater Cemetery near the First Parish meeting house. In the first decades of the nineteenth century the First Parish, along with scores of other churches, bolted from the Congregational Church and became part of the new American Unitarian Association in 1825. In the 1840\u27s First Parish played an important role in the town in its competition with Plymouth to become the location of a State Normal School. According to one source the town offered its Town Hall as a temporary home to the potential school, something it was able to do because First Parish agreed to let the town use the meeting house for town meetings. Later when the school built its own building on School Street, part of the dedication ceremonies were held in the new (third) First Parish Building. That 1845 building still stands to this day. Eventually, the congregation joined the Unitarian Universalist Association when the Unitarians merged with the Universalist Church of America in 1961.https://vc.bridgew.edu/local_histories/1000/thumbnail.jp

Methods of isolation and identification of pathogenic and potential pathogenic bacteria from skins and tannery effluents

Currently there is no standard protocol available within the leather industry to isolate and identify pathogenic bacteria from hides, skins or tannery effluent. This study was therefore carried out to identify simple but effective methods for isolation and identification of bacterial pathogens from the effluent and skins during leather processing. Identification methods based on both phenotypic and genotypic characteristics were investigated. Bacillus cereus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were used as indicator bacteria to evaluate the isolation and identification methods. Decontaminated calfskins were inoculated with a pure culture of the above mentioned bacterial species followed by a pre-tanning and chromium tanning processes. Effluent samples were collected and skins were swabbed at the end of each processing stage. Bacterial identification was carried out based on the phenotypic characteristics; such as colony appearance on selective solid media, cell morphology following a standard Gram-staining and spore staining techniques, and biochemical reactions, e.g., the ability of a bacterial species to ferment particular sugars and ability to produce certain enzymes. Additionally, an identification system based on bacterial phenotypic characteristics, known as Biolog® system was applied. A pulsed-filed gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method for bacterial DNA fingerprinting was also evaluated and used for the identification of the inoculated bacteria. The methods described in the study were found to be effective for the identification of pathogenic bacteria from skins and effluent