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The Experiences Of Rural School Counselors Seeking To Implement Antiracist Practices: A Phenomenological Investigation
No full textThis phenomenological study conducted through a CRT lens examined the lived experiences of rural school counselors who implemented or sought to implement antiracist school counseling practices in PK-12 schools. Literature currently exists on the experiences of school counselors implementing antiracist social justice practices (Smith-Durkin, 2022), counseling competencies for antiracist school counselors (Stickl Haugen et al., 2022), school counselor preparation (Ieva et al., 2021; Johnson et al., 2022; Mason et al., 2021) and antiracist school counseling frameworks (Holcomb-McCoy, 2022; Mayes & Byrd, 2022), but none of the existing literature prior to this study examines how antiracist school counseling might look in a rural context. The results of this study provide insight and knowledge into the best practices for rural school counselors as well as ways to overcome potential barriers for current rural school counselors seeking to implement antiracist practices. The findings of this study shine light into future training and practice for rural school counselors to continue to push for antiracist school counseling practices.EducationDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Reverend Sirs: The Hanover Revival and the Contested Boundaries of Religious Authority and Itinerant Dissent in Pre-Revolutionary Virginia, 1720 - 1763
No full textThis paper analyzes the controversies and confrontations that emerged between the established Church of England in the colony of Virginia and the evangelical New Light Presbyterians who challenged the colonial authorities' definition of religious toleration. The paper first identifies the social, intellectual, and cultural problems inherited by the colonial church based on the problem of church-state integration in the context of growing multi-denominational landscape of competing dissenting groups. The factors of frontier violence and immigration are also taken into account to stress the role of patterns of social dislocation that undermined the authority of British institutions like the national church. Finally, it argues that the transition of the Hanover Revival from a lay movement to a network of Presbyterian congregations through Samuel Davies' ministry as an itinerant pastor helped expand the preexisting legal application of the Act of Toleration, contributing to an ambiguous field of contested boundaries that would characterize the established church in Virginia for the rest of its duration.HistoryBachelors of Arts (BA
GIS Data: 2024 Shoreline Management Model - Poquoson County
No full textIn 2011, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a policy into law that specifies living shorelines as the preferred management practice for erosion control in Virginia waters. The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has been developing tools for many years to guide local governments in shoreline management. In particular, they have focused on the use of ecologically preferred alternatives for erosion control and have conducted research into refining the appropriate uses for a large suite of possible treatments based on existing shoreline conditions. A series of Decision Trees were developed to determine shoreline best management practices (BMPs) when conducting onsite inspections. These were developed to support integrated guidance at the management and regulatory level. This body of work has been expanded and re-developed as a GIS spatial model known as the Shoreline Management Model (SMM) to determine appropriate shoreline BMPs from the desktop using available spatial data and the decision tree logic. The assessment is conducted at a parcel level scale, but the output represents a reach-based or cumulative approach to shoreline management. In 2023, CCRM began an update of the SMM. Version 6.0 continues to use fetch, nearshore bathymetry, bank height, marsh presence, beach presence, presence of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), roads and permanent structures within the riparian zone, and existing shoreline erosion control structures. To enhance the model’s capabilities for evaluating best management practices and determining where erosion control practices may impact ecologically sensitive areas, version 6.0 adds wave energy, federal navigation channels, presence of RTE species via predicted suitable habitat, bank slope, and narrow creeks. Most appropriate for desktop reviews, regulatory compliance, and comprehensive planning, the recommendations derived from the SMM may be altered due to lot size, shoreline length along a single parcel, proximity of primary buildings to the shoreline, type of existing erosion control structures, land use practices, and local biota. The SMM v.6.0 also includes a module that identifies suitable areas for oyster structure placement, which can provide erosion control and habitat enhancement benefitsVirginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Transitions To Two-Hadron States From Quantum Chromodynamics
No full textThe rich spectrum of hadrons reflects the complexity of interactions between quarks and gluons confined within them. Most of these hadrons are extremely short-lived and are called resonances. Experimentally, they are observed indirectly through their effects on the energy distribution in scattering experiments. Additionally, the non-perturbative nature of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which governs the dynamics of quarks and gluons, prevents the implementation of known analytical techniques for calculating transition and interaction rates between hadrons. Lattice QCD (LQCD), a numerical implementation of QCD, provides a non-perturbative approach to studying the spectrum, as long as we understand how to account for finite-volume and imaginary-time effects in our calculations. In this dissertation, we present two main results. First, the formalism for extracting the elastic form factors of resonances from LQCD, which is necessary to understand their internal structure. Second, we perform the first numerical calculation of a coupled-channel transition, the timelike form factor of the pion, extending into the inelastic region above the kaon-antikaon threshold, as well as its connection to the spacelike region. These developments open the door for future calculations that explore the non-trivial internal structure of QCD resonances.PhysicsDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Motivations For Student Affairs Professionals Accepting An Interim Role During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Study
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to higher education institutions, especially for staffing. Internal interim appointments were used to fill gaps in the administrative ranks. Literature emphasizes that interim leaders often serve during periods of uncertainty, crisis, and change. The purpose of this study was to explore the motivation(s) for why administrators within student affairs decided to accept an interim leadership role during the COVID-19 pandemic and to better understand their experience. For this narrative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven student-affairs practitioners who were asked by their supervisors to serve in an interim dean, director, or vice-president role between March 2020–May 2022. An inductive analysis approach was employed to derive patterns and themes between the interims and their experiences. The findings indicated that all participants felt that their financial compensation for the role was inadequate given the demands of the interim role. Additionally, despite all but one of the participants constantly feeling overwhelmed and stressed, most indicated a willingness to do an interim role again. McClelland’s (1961) Achievement Motivation Theory was used as a framework to see if the factors of achievement, affiliation, or power were primary motivators for accepting the interim role. Over half of the interims indicated they were motivated by achievement. Additionally, the concept of being motivated by power was not viewed positively by most of the participants, yet power did emerge as a motivator for one participant. Given that interim appointments and pandemics are both temporary, conducting a study that focused on experiences during this timeframe adds to the limited body of research on this intersectionality. Additionally, narratives from the participants serve as a guide for future practitioners considering an interim appointment or supervisors looking for an interim employee.EducationDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Extensions Of The Standard Model With Improved Ultraviolet Behavior
No full textAlthough general relativity and the standard model have proved incredibly consistent at all scales accessible to tests, they are not expected to accurately describe nature at all scales; we know there is new physics to be discovered at higher energy scales (shorter distances). The nonrenormalizability of gravity prohibits a predictive quantum field theory description, unless the infinite parameter space needed to absorb divergences can be constrained. An asymptotically safe theory is one in which all of the couplings in the theory run to either zero or a nonzero ultraviolet fixed point. Requiring that a coupling reach an ultraviolet fixed point constrains it to live on an ultraviolet critical surface that is of smaller dimension than the original parameter space. We study a theory with gauged baryon number, and require that it is asymptotically safe by introducing gravitational corrections above the Planck scale. This constrains the parameter space of the theory, giving a relationship between the baryon number gauge coupling and a coupling that gives the kinetic mixing between baryon number and hypercharge, effectively removing a free parameter. We then introduce a TeV-scale, fermionic dark matter candidate into the theory, with the baryon number gauge boson acting as a portal between the visible and dark sectors. The dark matter relic density for our candidate is determined and compared to direct detection bounds. We then examine the problem of the enormous fine-tuning required to keep the Higgs boson mass light despite contributions from large quadratic divergences, called the hierarchy problem. Higher derivative theories are one class of theories that offer a solution to this problem. Infinite-derivative nonlocal theories and finite-derivative Lee-Wick theories each have strengths in this regard, but they also each have weaknesses (for instance, Lee-Wick particles cancel quadratic divergences, but we would have ideally expected to detect them by now at current collider sensitivities). Asymptotically nonlocal theories interpolate between the two and behave differently from either, although they appear nonlocal in the low-energy limit. In asymptotic nonlocality, an emergent nonlocal scale arises that regulates quadratic divergences and that is hierarchically smaller than the mass of the lightest new particle, suggesting a solution to the hierarchy problem. We examine the center-of-mass energy dependence of the cross section in an asymptotically nonlocal theory and demonstrate that the behavior is different from either a nonlocal or Lee-Wick theory. We then derive the Feynman rules in an asymptotically nonlocal extension of QCD, which are needed for the study of strong interaction processes at hadron colliders. We examine the basic process of dijet production from two-into-two parton scattering, calculating the relevant parton-level cross sections. An experimental bound on the nonlocal scale is determined by comparing the predicted dijet invariant mass spectrum in our model with data from the Large Hadron Collider.PhysicsDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Front Matter
No full textFront matter of the Journal of Sorority and Fraternity Life Research and Practice Volume 19, Issue 2
University Brand And The Choice Of A College: Understanding The Consumer Decision Framework
No full textAs it becomes more difficult to predict enrollment outcomes and the decline in high school graduates’ looms on the horizon, the ability of higher education leaders to understand what characteristics of the university brand are most compelling for prospective students is important to ensure enrollment objectives are met. This mixed-methods exploratory case study explored the college choice process of 1st-year students at a faith-based university in the United States using the Consumer Decision Framework (Stephenson et al., 2016). Through the use of a focus group, online survey, and semi-structured interviews, this study sought to answer questions about the brand characteristics of the schools in the consideration set, the brand characteristics that were most compelling to students, and the evaluation of the case university compared to the other institutions in the choice set. The study revealed that over 75% of respondents had consideration sets ranging from one to five schools, there was considerable diversity in the types of institutions included in the consideration sets, and family connections and word of mouth were identified as the most influential factors in moving from the awareness set to the consideration set. Seven important brand characteristics emerged, which included the faith-based community, affordability, close-knit community in a major city, high quality of chosen major, proximity to home, reputation for producing successful graduates, and optimal campus size. When students evaluated the case university against their choice set, they noted that it had a more authentic faith-based community, a more welcoming community, a more personalized process, a more favorable location, and it was more affordable.EducationDoctor of Education (Ed.D.
