The Influence of a University’s Social Identity on NCAA Divisional Affiliation

Several scholars noted universities changing their intercollegiate athletic association are influenced by rival schools with similar social identities (Smith, 2011; Smith, Williams, Soebbing, & Washington, 2013; Washington, 2004, 2004–05; Weaver, 2010). Specifically, most of these studies reviewed institutions that were former members of the NAIA and moved to the NCAA since 1973, noting university officials affiliated with the NAIA considered the organization as a detriment to their own firm’s identity (Smith, 2011; Washington, 2004–05). Thus, many of these universities departed the NAIA to join the NCAA. However, NCAA affiliation requires institutions to review NCAA rules and regulations to determine which division best suit their respective school’s needs (i.e., Division II or III). Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine if a school’s many social identities influence the likelihood of movement from the NAIA to either Division II or Division III. The results from a logistic regression model showed schools located in the Southeast region of the United States, designated as an HBCU or a women’s college, considered a small or a large school according to the Carnegie Foundation or sponsor women’s basketball are more likely to leave the NAIA for Division II. Schools located in the Great Lakes region or affiliated with a Mainline Protestant denomination have higher tendencies to leave the NAIA for Division III. These results could assist the NAIA in the recruitment of new members and talk to current members possessing these identifies to create new mechanisms to retain their NAIA affiliation

The greedy basis equals the theta basis

We prove the equality of two canonical bases of a rank 2 cluster algebra, the greedy basis of Lee-Li-Zelevinsky and the theta basis of Gross-Hacking-Keel-Kontsevich.Comment: 17 page

Simple piezoelectric-actuated mirror with 180 kHz servo bandwidth

We present a high bandwidth piezoelectric-actuated mirror for length stabilization of an optical cavity. The actuator displays a transfer function with a flat amplitude response and greater than 135$^\circ$ phase margin up to 200 kHz, allowing a 180 kHz unity gain frequency to be achieved in a closed servo loop. To the best of our knowledge, this actuator has achieved the largest servo bandwidth for a piezoelectric transducer (PZT). The actuator should be very useful in a wide variety of applications requiring precision control of optical lengths, including laser frequency stabilization, optical interferometers, and optical communications

An Analysis of a University Reclassification Effect on Applications Following a Move to a New Intercollegiate Athletic Association

Scholars have argued that athletics are utilized by universities to advertise their school to all individuals (Collins, 2012; Dwyer, Eddy, Havard, & Braa, 2010; Toma & Cross, 1998; Washington & Ventresca, 2004; Weaver, 2010). Expectedly, university officials are willing to contribute resources in order to develop an effective athletics program to establish an institution’s legitimacy among other universities (Collins, 2012; Toma & Cross, 1998; Washington & Ventresca, 2004). One tactic employed by schools focuses on the process of athletic association reclassification into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from other member associations (e.g., National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics). Officials consider this move due to the NCAA’s identity as the premiere intercollegiate athletic association. As such, studies on college movement recognized that universities are more likely to move to the NCAA if other universities with shared characteristics have reclassified in order to become legitimate among peers (Smith, Williams, Soebbing, & Washington, 2013; Washington, 2004; 2004-05). However, research has not been conducted to estimate the quantity and duration of a potential \u27reclassification\u27 effect. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine if a change in athletic association will increase the number of application receives after reclassification. The dissertation analyzes this phenomenon through the movement of former NAIA member schools from 1959 to 2012 to the NCAA