A Historical Analysis of the Leadership and Strategic Plan of Chancellor Stephen R. Portch in the University System of Georgia

This dissertation provides historical insight into the design and implementation of one strategic plan of a public higher education system in an effort to inform future similar strategic planning processes. On July 1, 1994, the Board of Regents appointed Stephen R. Portch the ninth Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. The timing was advantageous because then Governor Zell Miller was determined to leave his legacy as Georgia’s “education governor,” and in those prosperous economic times, the Governor was eager to pour money into the university system. The regents selected Portch because they recognized his potential to lead the system through a period of unprecedented transformation. They were looking for a leader with vision, and they saw that in Portch. The goal of the Portch chancellorship was to move the University System of Georgia into the national forefront, and he achieved this objective via strategic planning. The strategic planning process occurred in three phases. The first phase was the development of a vision statement; the second stage was the ratification of 34 guiding principles; and the final stage was implementation of the plan. This dissertation provides an analysis of the strategic planning process and its resulting policy directives. Using historical research methods, I carefully examine the primary goals the strategic plan set forth, and whether and how it met those goals. Further, I examine Portch’s leadership style, identifying both strengths and weaknesses, as well as how his leadership influenced the success of the plan. Using oral history methods, I interviewed the Chancellor Emeritus as well as members of the Board of Regents and the University System Office staff who played key roles in the development and implementation of the strategic plan. I also interviewed faculty members, students, and legislators to solicit their perspectives on the Chancellor, the plan, and their legacy. In the mid-1990s, the university system benefited greatly from the synergy of having a unified board, a supportive governor and legislature, and a booming economy. These conditions enabled Portch, a chancellor with a vision and strong leadership skills, to move the system forward significantly in a relatively short time

The interaction of unidirectional winds with an isolated barchan sand dune

Velocity profile measurements are determined on and around a barchan dune model inserted in the roughness layer on the tunnel floor. A theoretical investigation is made into the factors influencing the rate of sand flow around the dune. Flow visualization techniques are employed in the mapping of streamlines of flow on the dune's surface. Maps of erosion and deposition of sand are constructed for the barchan model, utilizing both flow visualization techniques and friction velocities calculated from the measured velocity profiles. The sediment budget found experimentally for the model is compared to predicted and observed results reported. The comparison shows fairly good agreement between the experimentally determined and predicted sediment budgets

Simulation model of erosion and deposition on a barchan dune

Erosion and deposition over a barchan dune near the Salton Sea, California, are modeled by bookkeeping the quantity of sand in saltation following streamlines of transport. Field observations of near surface wind velocity and direction plus supplemental measurements of the velocity distribution over a scale model of the dune are combined as input to Bagnold type sand transport formulas corrected for slope effects. A unidirectional wind is assumed. The resulting patterns of erosion and deposition compare closely with those observed in the field and those predicted by the assumption of equilibrium (downwind translation of the dune without change in size or geometry). Discrepancies between the simulated results and the observed or predicted erosional patterns appear to be largely due to natural fluctuations in the wind direction. The shape of barchan dunes is a function of grain size, velocity, degree of saturation of the oncoming flow, and the variability in the direction of the oncoming wind. The size of the barchans may be controlled by natural atmospheric scales, by the age of the dunes, or by the upwind roughness. The upwind roughness can be controlled by fixed elements or by sand in the saltation. In the latter case, dune scale is determined by grain size and wind velocity

Radiative Corrections to Neutralino and Chargino Masses in the Minimal Supersymmetric Model

We determine the neutralino and chargino masses in the MSSM at one-loop. We perform a Feynman diagram calculation in the on-shell renormalization scheme, including quark/squark and lepton/slepton loops. We find generically the corrections are of order 6%. For a 20 GeV neutralino the corrections can be larger than 20%. The corrections change the region of $\mu,\ M_2,\ \tan\beta$ parameter space which is ruled out by LEP data. We demonstrate that, e.g., for a given $\mu$ and $\tan\beta$ the lower limit on the parameter $M_2$ can shift by 20 GeV.Comment: 11 pages, JHU-TIPAC-930030, PURD-TH-93-13, uses epsf.sty, 6 uuencoded postscript figures, added one sentence and a referenc

Intrepretation of surface features and surface processes on Mars

Eolian erosion and deposition on earth was studied in order to interpret the eolian land forms of Mars. Emphasis of the wind tunnel studies was on the flow field around models of eolian forms. Areas of the wind tunnel studies include: simulation of the atmospheric boundary layer; velocity profile measurements around different models in the desert boundary layer, and estimating shear stress distributions on the model surfaces; flow visualization techniques; streamline mapping using tuft photographs; and roughness contrasts

Keep your head above water: Explaining disparities in local drinking water bills

Rising water bills across the U.S. underscore the need to understand the factors that contribute to disparities in local system bills. In this paper, we examine residential water bill amounts from 1,720 systems in four states in different regions of the U.S. (Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire and Wisconsin) to (1) examine how local system bills at a constant consumption level (4,000 gallons per month or 15.14m3) for drinking water vary within and across states, as well as within combined metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), and (2) study the relationship between local system bills and system-level characteristics. We find a high degree of similarity in median bill amounts between states but substantial variation within them at the MSA and local system scale. Our multivariate analysis suggests that municipally-owned systems are more likely to have lower water bills relative to for-profit systems, while factors such as purchasing water and having neighboring systems with high bills significantly correlate with higher water bills. Though we find that water systems with high levels of poverty tend to have higher water bills, our results also suggest that local systems that serve populations with higher levels of income inequality and higher proportions of non-White population tend to have lower water bills. These findings point to future research and data needs to better inform federal, state and local water affordability policy and underline the importance of examining and addressing water affordability at local scales

Spin- and energy relaxation of hot electrons at GaAs surfaces

The mechanisms for spin relaxation in semiconductors are reviewed, and the mechanism prevalent in p-doped semiconductors, namely spin relaxation due to the electron-hole exchange interaction, is presented in some depth. It is shown that the solution of Boltzmann-type kinetic equations allows one to obtain quantitative results for spin relaxation in semiconductors that go beyond the original Bir-Aronov-Pikus relaxation-rate approximation. Experimental results using surface sensitive two-photon photoemission techniques show that the spin relaxation-time of electrons in p-doped GaAs at a semiconductor/metal surface is several times longer than the corresponding bulk spin relaxation-times. A theoretical explanation of these results in terms of the reduced density of holes in the band-bending region at the surface is presented.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures; earlier submission replaced by corrected and expanded version; eps figures now included in the tex