The Expiration of Tax Deductions for Teacher Expenses

As a part of ACC 406, Taxes and Business Decisions, I was able to conduct research regarding the expiration of a tax deduction for teachers’ expenses, and send my findings to the Committee on Ways and Means as well as an argument against its expiration

The Patriarchy’s Role in Gender Inequality in the Caribbean

While gender equality in the Caribbean is improving, with women’s growing social, economic, and political participation, literacy rates comparable to those in Europe, and greater female participation in higher education, deeply rooted inequalities are still present and are demonstrated in the types of jobs women are in and the limited number of women in decision-making positions. Sexism, racism, and classism are systemic inequalities being perpetuated in schools, through the types of education offered for individuals and the content in textbooks. Ironically, the patriarchy is coexisting within a system of matrifocal and matrilocal families, with a long tradition of female economic autonomy due to the Caribbean’s history with colonialism. This irony demonstrates the complexity and difficulty to change the dominant ideology and break the vicious cycles creating gender inequalities throughout many sectors of society in the Caribbean. [excerpt

Erin O\u27Connor, Class of 2015

In this current issue of Next Page, Erin O\u27Connor, Class of 2015 and winner of this year\u27s Silent Leader Award, tells us which influential courses and works inspired her to develop her own major, Diversity and Development in Education, what conversation she would like to have with Paulo Freire if given the chance, and which books are on her To Read list for after graduation

Using Criminal Punishment to Serve Both Victim and Social Needs

In recent decades, the criminal-justice pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. Criminal law is often described as covering disputes between the offender and the state. Victims are not direct parties to criminal proceedings, they have no formal right to either initiate or terminate a criminal action, and they have no control over the punishment meted out to offenders. In this state-centric system, victim needs have been left unsatisfied, giving rise to a politically powerful victims\u27 rights movement that has had success in giving victims rights of access to prosecutors and rights to be heard in the courtroom. Here, O\u27Hara and Robbins propose changing the manner in which control rights over criminal sanctions are distributed

A dialectical approach to theoretical integration in developmental-contextual identity research

Future advances in identity research will depend on integration across major theoretical traditions. Developmental-contextualism has established essential criteria to guide this effort, including specifying the context of identity development, its timing over the life course, and its content. This article assesses four major traditions of identity research - identify status, eudaimonic identity, sociocultural theory, and narrative identity - in light of these criteria, and describes the contribution of each tradition to the broader enterprise of developmental-contextual research. This article proposes dialectical integration of the four traditions, for the purpose of generating new questions when the tensions and contradictions among theoretical traditions are acknowledged. We provide examples from existing literature of the kinds of research that could address these questions and consider ways of addressing the validity issues involved in developmental-contextual identity research

Galaxy Merger Identification in the GOODS-South Field

We analyzed a catalog of 7,628 galaxies at 0 \u3c z \u3c 4 from CANDELS1 in the GOODS-South2 field in order to identify a sample of galaxy mergers and interactions. Galaxy mergers are believed to play a fundamental role in galaxy evolution. Developing methods to robustly and efficiently identify mergers becomes vital with our increasing ability to study mergers at higher redshifts and in larger samples. We explored merger identification based on visual morphology classification and preliminary attempts with automated quantitative methods. Using multiple detailed visual morphology classifications for each galaxy conducted by the CANDELS structure and morphology team, we created selection criteria to identify mergers from this visual classification catalog. We chose galaxies with high interaction classification and evidence of merger signatures (i.e. tidal features, double nuclei) to generate a catalog of 1051 galaxies we are confident are mergers. This represents a conservative sample of possible mergers. For comparison, we tested automated merger identification techniques previously used for lower redshift (z \u3c 1) galaxies. This is one of the first large investigations of galaxy mergers at z \u3e 1. 1http://candels.ucolick.org/ 2http://www.stsci.edu/science/goods

The Essential Role of Courts for Supporting Innovation

Commercial parties commonly resolve their disputes in arbitration rather than courts. In fact, some estimate that as many as 90 percent of international commercial contracts opt for arbitration of future disputes, and others claim that some industries never resort to courts. However, a study of arbitration clauses in a wide variety of contracts, including franchise agreements, CEO employment contracts, technology contracts, joint venture agreements and consumer cell phone contracts, reveals that parties very often carve out a right to resort to courts for the resolution of claims designed to protect information, innovation, and reputation. Studies of international and cross-border contracts indicate that the preference for courts requires that parties are comfortable with available court systems, but when courts are thought to adequately protect information and innovation, they appear to be superior to arbitration. The data suggests that nations wishing to compete effectively for technologically-sophisticated investments must do more than credibly commit to enforcing arbitration clauses and awards. Court reforms are likely essential