The Trembling Hand

Non-fiction by Elizabeth Simspo

All That Sprawl, Y’all: An Analysis of Development on Steinwehr Avenue and York Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from 1971 to 2014

The advent of the automobile transformed the American landscape in the 20th century. In conjunction with the increasing importance of the automobile, numerous post-WW II government programs such as the Interstate Highway System encouraged suburban sprawl. Towns and cities adjacent to tourist attractions, known as gateway communities, face unique problems caused by sprawl. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is an example of a gateway community as it includes the Gettysburg National Military Park. Two study sites, portions of Steinwehr Avenue and York Street, were studied to analyze the effects of sprawl in Gettysburg. The sites were analyzed using ArcGIS, data compiled from historic phonebooks, and discussions with local business owners. Development along York Street exemplifies an auto-centric culture with many regional and national chain establishments set back from the road. Steinwehr Avenue represents a walkable community comprising on-street parking, sidewalks, and local “mom-and-pop” establishments. Trends associated with categories of businesses varied between the two sites and revealed different development patterns. We predict that that York Street will continue to sprawl while Steinwehr Avenue development will be limited due to its close proximity to the battlefield

Sampling Ecological Diversity and Process Across Scales Using Fractal Triads

Ecological assembly processes, such as environmental filtering, competition, and facilitation drive plant community phylogenetic structure. Detecting the relative influence of these processes, which are known to vary across spatial scales, has proven difficult. We present and test a multi-scale, fractal sampling design, that allows flexible, straightforward sampling of assemblages and the environment they live in, at multiple scales. We use a simulation to demonstrate that our design provides more comparisons between sampling locations (and thereby statistical power) across many scales and especially at smaller and larger scales than a random design. We implemented our design along the Right Hand Fork of the Logan River and found that our design effectively captures different amounts of change in plant phylogenetic diversity across environmental gradients at different scales. We also decomposed the variance for each metric found at different scales and found that the spatial structure of our design did capture more variance in plant assemblages at specific scales. Together, this theoretical and empirical evidence supports the flexibility and efficiency of this method to simultaneously sample environmental and community heterogeneity at small and large scales

Demechanizing Whiteness: Lessons from Theatre of the Oppressed

The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) provides small group techniques to strategize and “rehearse” for collaborative liberation using popular education forms of systems analysis, bolstered by practices that counter implicit biases and habituated behaviors. This essay draws on interviews with jokers at CTO-Rio to advocate the need for continual engagement of demechanizing practices both within TO and in the lives of practitioners in order to demechanize the tenets of white supremacy that we are born into, despite our essential loving nature, with particular focus on counteracting a the habit of exploiting Black suffering for creative capital

Traditional Student Perceptions and Experiences Contributing to Community College Persistence

An increased effort to improve the retention percentages and number of college graduates must address the unique characteristics and experiences of the traditional-aged community college student population. Models of student departure and attrition seek to explain why a student stops attending a college through the analysis of quantitative data. These data, whether about student demographic characteristics, academic intent, institutional factors, motivational factors, etc. are used abundantly to predict persistence and retention patterns of 4-year college and university students. Perceptions and experiences of traditional-aged community college students relating to persistence and retention is an area of higher education research with insufficient coverage. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand, describe, and interpret perceptions and experiences of traditional-aged community college students associated with persistence. This study involved face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 15 participants to collect their experiences with continuing community college attendance from one semester and one year to the next. The interviews were analyzed and themes were developed using Moustakas’s modification of van Kaam’s method. Seven themes emerged from the study: 1) financial characteristics, including concern about cost, financial aid, and working while enrolled, 2) early anxious thoughts, 3) undecided, 4) family support, 5) determination and self-motivation, 6) on-campus engagement and involvement, including course experiences, professor interactions, counseling and advising experiences, and college staff interactions, and 7) plans to transfer. The study revealed that traditional-aged community college students face a number of factors in their decisions to persist. Although students may experience frustrations, setbacks and manage a number of responsibilities, their determination and self-motivation help them to reach their educational and career goals

Fractally Sampling Diversity-Environment Relationships to Understand Plant Assemblage Health Across Spatial Scales

Humans influence the health of ecosystems and rely on healthy ecosystems to support their livelihoods and well-being. By looking at how the parts of ecosystems interact we can understand and improve ecosystem health. Ecosystem interactions change across spatial scales or different size patches of area. For example, individual organisms interact with each other at small spatial scales, while at large spatial scales, communities of organisms interact with weather conditions. However, many research studies do not look at how ecosystem interactions change across spatial scales. To address this gap in ecological research, I use a fractal sampling design which samples at the vertices of equilateral triangles nested within each other. This design allows me to investigate how spatial scale influences the relationship between plant communities and the environments they live in. I tested this design in northeast Utah rangeland where the vegetation changes depending on whether a hill faces south (more shrubs and grasses) or north (more conifer trees). In the first chapter, I look at how plant biodiversity metrics based on the tree of life (phylogenetic diversity) change across terrain and spatial scale. This analysis identifies which spatial scales influence the relationship between diversity and environment at the fieldsite. In the second chapter, I assess how the characteristics that plants have adapted to survive and thrive (functional diversity) change in response to soil temperature and water dynamics. This chapter describes the potential for plants to respond to changing conditions in the future. In the third chapter, I look at diversity-environment relationships across a larger landscape to address rangeland management concerns about an increase in undesirable species and bare ground. Overall, both phylogenetic and functional diversity changed across south- to north-facing hills. In contrast to north-facing hills, the soil temperature on south-facing hills was hotter and more variable. Plant communities on south-facing hills were more closely related, shorter, and better adapted to survive with fewer resources, like water, and had more similar features than on north-facing hills. These communities might struggle to survive if this area becomes hotter for the following contrasting reasons. On south-facing hills, plant communities may not have enough difference in features to respond to more stressful conditions, but on north-facing hills, communities may not adapt to fewer resources quickly enough. In the context of range management, the amount of undesirable species and bare ground should be prioritized as a concern. Additional monitoring at relatively small spatial scales may help guide management actions. Maintaining different types of healthy vegetation and increasing the number of species in each vegetation type will help achieve the goal of decreasing undesirable species and bare ground. Overall, a fractal sampling design effectively assessed how plant diversity—both phylogenetic and functional—changed in different environmental and management conditions and identified when spatial scale influenced ecological interactions and ecosystem health