The 2018 Midterms in the Mountain West

The 116th Congress has begun with a bang, with a protracted government shutdown and promises of aggressive oversight from the new Democratic House majority. To understand how we got to this point—and where we might be going in 2020—a look back at the 2018 elections is valuable. As a region, the Mountain West—Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah—provides useful insights into broader national political dynamics across all levels of government, from Congress to state legislatures

MS-172: Paxton Family Papers

This set of papers presents a variety of notes and correspondences between members of the family and friends. The bulk of the letters date 1895 and come from Elizabeth D. Paxton and Margaretta Paxton to their mother, Caroline Sophia Denny Paxton, while touring Europe. There are letters from James Dunlop and Harmar Denny to their mother, as well as condolence letters for Mr. and Mrs. William M. Paxton upon the death of Harmar Denny in 1896. This collection may prove useful for a researcher conducting a study of the Paxton family, or one interested in the travels of Americans in Europe at the end of the 19th century. This collection does not contain information relevant to William Miller Paxton’s time at Gettysburg or his career. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1143/thumbnail.jp

Field and Factory: Chinese Revolutionary Posters

The images on display for Field and Factory, political propaganda used by the Communist Party of China during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, construct a fictitious world. In perceiving these kinds of illustrations, the audience is asked either to visualize the society in its ideal form or unify in opposition to a national enemy. In the first half of the twentieth century, before the possibilities of the television advertisement were fully realized, posters were one of the most popular forms of propaganda: cheap to produce in mass quantities and simple enough to hang in any public building. The art form’s bold aesthetics encouraged mass mobilization during intense periods of war and political upheaval. The posters in this exhibition represent a myriad of political agendas promoted by the Communist Party of China during its early development after the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Posters were viewed by all citizens in both the private and public sphere; by abolishing other varieties of personal expression, the Communist Party sought control of its population. Whether the posters were sought after as decoration in the home or transmitters of political policy, they became, by default, the most popular form of imagery in China during that time. By glorifying certain aspects of Chinese life, these images help to shape the elements of national identity for a newly founded modern China. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1012/thumbnail.jp

An Impossible Utopia: People’s Art and the Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution period of the People’s Republic of China (1966-1976) was crucial in the creation of modern-day China. The material culture of that period mirrors the turbulent political activity of students and the directives of the Communist Party’s central leadership during the height of the Mao Zedong personality cult. The commercial manufacture of posters, often the sole decoration available for the public and private spheres, offers strong examples of the design style of this time. The posters are not only indicative of the propagandistic fervor of production, but the aesthetic changes initiated in the visual and performing arts during the period as the state consciously manipulated style in an effort to create a “people’s” art and envision a Marxist utopia. This paper suggests that a comprehension of folk arts and popular culture is essential for understanding the visual language of this specific geographic and political space. A new perspective on the reconciliation of reality and ideology during the Cultural Revolution is gained through an analysis of popular form and content, and reveals not only the basis of a modern mass culture, but the unprecedented unification of high and low art forms

When Interests Collide: The Politics of Republican Governors in an Era of Unified Republican Federal Control

This lecture will focus on three key questions. First, what are policy areas where the political interests of states, especially Republican-led ones, may clash with the political interests of national Republicans? Second, where have we already observed these conflicts and what are the results? And third, what are the implications of 2018 state elections for the relationship between Republican-led states and national Republicans

House Oversight of the Executive Branch in the 116th Congress

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presents a lecture titled House Oversight of the Executive Branch in the 116th Congress by Brookings Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, Molly Reynolds. Democrats promised to undertake oversight of President Trump and the executive branch. This lecture answers questions about the ability of the House of Representatives to fulfill one of Congress’s duties during the Trump administration and previews whether and how this oversight activity may impact the 2020 elections

Trapped in Transition: Examining first-semester college students’ discursive struggles about home and school

The study examines how messages to, from, and concerning home may impact first-semester college student retention. The current study extends previous retention research in several ways. Rather than collect data regarding retention after students drop out, this study analyzed free write responses of 135 participants while they were enrolled in 15 sections of CIS 110 (Composition and Communication I) throughout the course of the Fall 2010 semester. Using relational dialectics theory (RDT) (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) as a sensitizing framework, this study identified three discursive struggles and associated radiants of meaning present in the free write responses of these 135 first semester college students. Specifically, students identified experiencing the discursive struggles of independence, integration, and expression during the first semester of college. Non-returning students also identified these same three discursive struggles. However, non-returning students identified the discursive struggle of expression much more than did the returning students. Ultimately, this dissertation study proposed practical implications for students, parents, and the academy regarding how messages to, from, and about home might impact the transition of first-semester students from high school to college

Appreciative Academic Coaching

Academic coaching programs are becoming increasingly common across the country due to the recognition that many college-bound and current students need assistance transitioning to college life and the accompanying increased academic rigor (Barkley, 2011). While there are many different coaching models being used across the country, the University of Kentucky has chosen to adapt the 6D’s of Appreciative Advising and Education as their coaching framework, naming this adaptation Appreciative Academic Coaching. While many coaching frameworks focus strictly on the in-session coaching-steps, Appreciative Academic Coaching takes both pre- and post- appointments into consideration, setting it apart from other coaching models

Exceptions to the Rule: Majoritarian Procedures and Majority Party Power in the United States Senate.

This dissertation explores majoritarian procedural exceptions, which are special procedures in that exempt designated bills from a filibuster on the floor of the United States Senate. I argue that these rules are created in order to ease the passage of legislation that will improve the electoral prospects of the Senate’s majority party. In Chapter 1, I describe these rules. In Chapter 2, I explore patterns in the creation of one class of the procedures, known as oversight exceptions, which induce the president to take actions favored by the Senate’s majority party that he would otherwise avoid. In Chapter 3, I investigate the creation of a second class of the procedures, known as delegation exceptions; these rules help the Senate’s majority party reduce the negative electoral consequences of certain policy choices. In Chapters 4 and 5, I conduct a case of study of one particular majoritarian exception: the budget reconciliation procedures. Chapter 4 describes these rules and their history and offers a theoretical account and accompanying empirical test of when we should expect to observe their use. Chapter 5 then explores the policy consequences of the reconciliation rules. Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes my findings and discusses their implications for procedural reform in Congress.PhDPublic Policy and Political ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113612/1/mollyer_1.pd

Creating an Integrated Coaching Culture In Higher Education

In higher education, it is a common ask to do more with less while delivering high-quality, holistic service to students. Coaching has been shown to produce significant gains in strengthening self-efficacy, improving GPA, and increasing retention through graduation (Alzen et al., 2021; Capstick et al., 2019; Catchings, 2014; Grover & Furnham, 2016; Losch et al., 2016), therefore making it a logical program to target for growth. To expand the impact of the University of Kentucky’s academic coaching program, in 2020, leadership modified the Appreciative Academic Coaching framework (Bradley & Reynolds, 2021) into Integrated Success Coaching with the intent to build a coaching culture across campus. This modification created a two-pronged approach to serving students, faculty, and staff across our campus: (a) training for professionally certified International Coaching Federation (ICF) coaches across six domains, including academic life, career, finances, wellness, leadership, and identity (e.g., First Gen) to directly serve students, and (b) training in foundational coaching skills for faculty, staff, and student leaders to incorporate into their daily practice. The evolution of this coaching model has allowed for holistic support of students and immersive coaching values and practices for faculty, staff, and student leaders that have led to improved retention and better GPA outcomes for students on probation and a culture of coaching care among faculty, staff, and students