The Examination of Executive Leadership Succession Planning Strategies in Georgia\u27s Community Colleges

The problem addressed observed the lack of succession planning at two-year colleges in Georgia in identifying future leaders in higher education. Due to escalating impending retirements, resignation, and discharge, it is vital that succession plans are implemented within the college for promotions. Leadership succession planning has seldom been incorporated into community college’s strategic planning. The emphasis of this research study was to examine how leadership succession planning can be developed and implemented in the community college arena in Georgia. Challenged by increased enrollments, diminishing state funding, accountability for student success, and increased public oversight, this study intended to provide awareness into the leadership challenges facing community colleges. This study focused on the lived experiences of individuals and groups’ data collected by means of interviews and observation. With the use of existing literature on succession planning, higher education and other organizational settings are used to check the emerging patterns and recommendations for the necessary process, strategies, and methods required to establish a successful succession plan within the executive leadership at community colleges. Succession planning is nothing new as one great example is described in the Bible with the story of Moses and his successor Joshua. Moses became a mentor to Joshua and provided him the opportunity to complete various leadership tasks to further his development. The same principles of succession planning that were used in the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua are still applicable to today’s transitions in leadership

The importance of financial market development on the relationship between loan guarantees for SMEs and local market employment rates

We empirically examine whether a major government intervention in the small-firm credit market yields significantly better results in markets that are less financially developed. The government intervention that we investigate is SBA-guaranteed lending. The literature on financing small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) suggests that small firms may be exposed to a particular type of market failure associated with credit rationing. And SMEs in markets that are less financially developed will likely face a greater degree of this market failure. To test our hypothesis, we use the level of bank deposits per capita as our relative measure of financial market development, and we use local market employment rates as our measure of economic performance. After controlling for the appropriate cross-sectional market characteristics, we find that SBA-guaranteed lending has a significantly more (less) positive impact on the average annual level of employment when the local market is relatively less (more) financially developed. This result has important implications for public policy directives concerning where SBA-guaranteed lending should be directed.Small Business Administration ; Financial markets ; Small business - Finance ; Employment

Polymeric Scaffolds Used as Prosthetics for Regenerating Tendons

Certain injuries such as torn tendons may require a prosthetic in order to heal properly. The materials that are used for the prosthetic would be synthetic or natural polymers that need to be both biodegradable and flexible. Tendon tissue engineering (TE) looks into polymeric scaffolds as a means of tendon and ligament prosthetics. Some natural polymers used are collagen derivatives, silk, and polysaccharides that provide different properties with beneficial bioactivity. Synthetic polymers are a stronger and more reliable alternative to natural polymers for building a scaffold. These synthetic polymers are polyesters such as polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polylactic acid (PLA) that are biodegradable but unable to promote cell adhesion. Polyhydroxy esters like copolymer poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is another synthetic polymer, that has an appealing degradation rate via hydrolysis but needs to be combined with PLA to help slow its degradation. Another synthetic polymer, polycaprolactone (PCL), has slow degradation but poor cell adhesion, so it is combined with collagen. Certain techniques allow the scaffold to be formed into mesh, film, hydrogel, foam, and sponge. Electrospinning is one technique that charges a polymer solution to form a fiber to fit the specifics of the ECM. Drying technologies make the scaffolds porous and dehydrated, improving their degradation rate. A modern technique on the rise is 3D-printing, to make a repeatable and precise design. It is highlighted that TE scaffolds are seen to be a more viable option than autografts and allografts, with hybrid scaffolds being made of both natural and synthetic polymers to produce desired characteristics

The Eagle’s Eye on the Rising Dragon: Why the United States Has Shifted Its View of China

Since 1978, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been viewed as an economic trading partner of the United States of America (US). The PRC has grown to be an economic powerhouse, and the US directly helped with that process and still benefits from it. However, during the mid-2010’s, US rhetoric began to turn sour against the PRC. The American government rhetoric toward the PRC, beginning with the Obama administration, switched. As Trump’s administration came along, they bolstered this rhetoric from non-friendly to more or less hostile. Then, Biden’s administration strengthened Trump’s rhetoric. Over the past ten years or so, the world has seen the US shift its view of China from a trading partner to now an international threat. The question this paper will attempt to answer is why did this switch happen? I hypothesize that the US has switched its view because of seven reasons. Some of the reasons that are listed first are fairly logical, while others are more complex. The factors I examine include: (1) the American capacity to make the switch, (2) the American realization that they must take a realist approach to international affairs in order to maintain hegemony, (3) the rise of Xi Jinping, (4) the China debate in the US, (5) national security concerns taking precedence over US business interests, (6) PRC economic and research espionage, theft, and aggression, and (7) human rights abuses. The following paper will examine these factors one at a time to assess why and how they played a part in the United States shifting its view of China. The results of this paper show that the United States’ shift has been a slow one, however, there are ample reasons why they have shifted. Furthermore, the results show that it is a highly complex issue. Particularly, the most important factors were the American reclamation of realism regarding international affairs, the CCP’s nationalistic rhetoric, and the American’s obtaining a better understanding of the PRC. The factor that is least important, however still contributed to the American switch and provided moral motivation, are the CCP human rights abuses