Ukraine: The Case for Urgency

If the United States and its allies seek to deny Vladimir Putin an objective victory in the Russia-Ukraine War, they must commit to providing sufficient aid to the Ukrainian army soon because the window of opportunity to provide sufficient resources is narrow—and closing. This article argues that the West must articulate a reasonable strategy for Ukrainian victory now, as a failure in Ukraine will weaken relationships between the United States and Western European states and their global partners while emboldening state and non-state actors to threaten the rules-based international order

Female Sports Officials and Mental Health: The Overlooked Problem

Sporting culture often celebrates mental toughness and chides weakness, which can stigmatize mental health issues. While some sport organizations have prioritized addressing mental well-being, referees have been ignored. Referees work in high-pressure environments; thus, the need to understand, destigmatize, and normalize the conversation around mental health within the referee community and the larger sporting system is important. Because the prevalence of stress-related issues is greater for women, this study focused on female referees’ well-being, interviewing 20 female U.S. basketball referees via a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Participants represented various geographical regions in the United States and officiated at levels ranging from high school to professional. Findings revealed Gendered Aggressions negatively impacted the referees, mental health issues are Stigmatized, and more Resources and Support are needed. Results also indicated that officiating can be Cathartic. Suggestions for addressing the referee shortage and improving the officiating experience are included

The Experience of Former Women Officials and the Impact on the Sporting Community

In an effort to explore the shortage of female sport officials, the authors examined the experience of eight former female basketball officials from five geographically diverse states in the U.S. who voluntarily left the role. Specifically, the authors asked former female basketball officials to describe their workplace experiences. Utilizing a phenomenological approach and workplace incivility framework, the results indicated that the felt social inequity for female officials detracted from the participants experiencing a sense of community in the workplace, which ultimately led to their discontinuation in the role. Results indicate four key factors that created this uncivil work environment. An examination of the data revealed four major themes. Specifically the female basketball officials reported experiencing a Lack of Mutual Respect from male counterparts; Perceived Inequity of Policies; a Lack of Role Modeling and Mentoring for and from female officials; and experiencing more Gendered Abuse than did their male counterparts. The combination of these four factors exacerbated the female officials’ inability to connect to the officiating community and led to their withdrawal from the role. The results further indicate that women officials likely threatened the hegemonic characteristics of a sport setting. Although females have made great strides in terms of sport participation, the practical implications of this research suggest that understanding females in workplace roles, such as officiating, is vital if social equity is to be achieved in the sporting community

Transformational Learning in Business Education: The Pivotal Role of Experiential Learning Projects

In this paper, we posit experiential learning projects in business as a valuable alternative to internships to meet the new AACSB standards for accreditation. While internships have traditionally been used as the main method to provide hands-on learning experiences for students in business schools, their effective implementation imposes stringent demands on faculty, curriculum, and program resources. The pedagogical and administrative benefits of experiential learning projects (ELP) are analyzed using the Kolb model and the literature on learning. We illustrate the versatility of the ELP learning tool by describing two very different applications currently in use at a small private university and advance guidelines for the effective implementation and assessment of experiential learning projects in business curricula

The Strength of Community: The Role of Social Support Networks in Sport Officials’ Retention

Previous researchers have indicated that a sense of community and social support are vital to referee retention; however, little is known about the connection between specific characteristics of sports officials’ networks and retention. To better understand the sports officiating shortage, researchers explored the social support networks of 116 referees utilizing egocentric network analysis. The authors suggest that retention of sports officials depends on the interpersonal ties and network structures within which the referees are embedded. Specifically, resulting hierarchical models confirmed that retention relationships among officials are a multilevel phenomenon, and that outside communication and community were vital network characteristics that fostered retention relationships. Network size, tenure, and the officiating level also were significant when considering an official’s network and its impact on retention. Areas for future research and suggestions for referee managers are presented

Transformational Learning In Business Education: The Pivotal Role Of Experiential Learning Projects

In this paper, we posit experiential learning projects in business as a valuable alternative to internships to meet the new AACSB standards for accreditation.  While internships have traditionally been used as the main method to provide hands-on learning experiences for students in business schools, their effective implementation imposes stringent demands on faculty, curriculum, and program resources.  The pedagogical and administrative benefits of experiential learning projects (ELP) are analyzed using the Kolb model and the literature on learning.  We illustrate the versatility of the ELP learning tool by describing two very different applications currently in use at a small private university and advance guidelines for the effective implementation and assessment of experiential learning projects in business curricula

Why Referees Stay in the Game

Current trends indicate the number of qualified sports officials continues to dwindle. Therefore, this research sought to better understand reasons for initial entry, continuation, and potential discontinuation with officiating, while also identifying problematic issues, and potential solutions. Content analysis was utilized to examine five open-ended online survey responses from 2,485 referees. The results indicate that Enjoyable Affiliation (58%) and Remuneration (14%) were key to referees becoming involved in officiating. Those two themes, Enjoyable Affiliation (75%) and Remuneration (14%), were also identified as important to retaining officials. Physical Limitations were mentioned by 58% of the respondents regarding why they plan to discontinue. In terms of the most problematic issues, referees most frequently indicated Abuse (42%) and Administrative Issues (20%). Lastly, findings suggest the best ways to recruit and retain officials are to Provide Mentors and Training (32%), Market to Young People (23%), and Increase Pay (19%). Practical implications and strategies that include attracting more women, underrepresented ethnicities, and young people into sports officiating are provided

Impact and collisional processes in the solar system

As impact cratered terrains have been successively recognized on certain planets and planetary satellites, it has become clear that impact processes are important to the understanding of the accretion and evolution of all solid planets. The noble gases in the normalized atmospheric inventories of the planets and the normalized gas content of meteorites are grossly similar, but demonstrate differences from each other which are not understood. In order to study shock devolatilization of the candidate carrier phases which are principally thought to be carbonaceous or hydrocarbons in planetesimals, experiments were conducted on noble gase implantation in various carbons: carbon black, activated charcoal, graphite, and carbon glass. These were candidate starting materials for impact devolatilization experiments. Initial experiments were conducted on vitreous amorphous carbon samples which were synthesized under vapor saturated conditions using argon as the pressurizing medium. An amino acid and surface analysis by laser ionization analyses were performed on three samples of shocked Murchison meteorite. A first study was completed in which a series of shock loading experiments on a porous limestone and on a non-porous gabbro in one and three dimensions were performed. Also a series of recovery experiments were conducted in which shocked molten basalt a 1700 C is encapsulated in molybdenum containers and shock recovered from up to 6 GPa pressures

Why Referees Stay in the Game

Current trends indicate the number of qualified sports officials continues to dwindle. Therefore, this research sought to better understand reasons for initial entry, continuation, and potential discontinuation with officiating, while also identifying problematic issues, and potential solutions. Content analysis was utilized to examine five open-ended online survey responses from 2,485 referees. The results indicate that Enjoyable Affiliation (58%) and Remuneration (14%) were key to referees becoming involved in officiating. Those two themes, Enjoyable Affiliation (75%) and Remuneration (14%), were also identified as important to retaining officials. Physical Limitations were mentioned by 58% of the respondents regarding why they plan to discontinue. In terms of the most problematic issues, referees most frequently indicated Abuse (42%) and Administrative Issues (20%). Lastly, findings suggest the best ways to recruit and retain officials are to Provide Mentors and Training (32%), Market to Young People (23%), and Increase Pay (19%). Practical implications and strategies that include attracting more women, underrepresented ethnicities, and young people into sports officiating are provided

Development of the Referee Retention Scale

Building upon the current sport officiating research, this study puts forth the Referee Retention Scale (RRS). Through a three-phase process, the researchers developed a valid and reliable scale to predict sport officials’ job satisfaction and intention to continue. The first phase consisted of instrument development, while the second phase included field testing of referees (n=253). After EFA and Rasch analysis, the resultant refined scale from phase 1 and 2 was then administered to 979 referees in phase 3. Phase 3 results using CFA indicated that the 7-factor, 28-item RRS was a valid and reliable tool for measuring and predicting referee retention. The results highlight the importance of considering a variety of factors associated with the referee experience, which include Administrator Consideration, Intrinsic Motives, Mentoring, Remuneration, Sense of Community, Lack of Stress, and Continuing Education. A discussion on how the RRS can help administrators manage and retain sport officials is included