White Memory and the (Counter)Stories We Might Tell examines public history narratives to explore how Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), tells stories about its relationships with marginalized communities. I ask what we should do with archives that exceed institutional progress narratives. Specifically, I foreground White memory, a process through which (mis)remembering public history creates a network of meaning-making practices that undergird and support hegemonic storytelling and worldmaking. To explore White memory, I constructed two case studies of Virginia Tech public history events. Using queer and decolonial archival methodologies, I practice what Mira Shimabukuro (2015) called "rhetorical attendance"; then, I construct counterstories to call storytellers to account for flattening and compression in progress narratives. First, I examined 1872 Forward, VT's sesquicentennial celebration, held in March 2022. Then, I explored Denim Day Do-Over, a 2019 event in which White memory obscured queer protests. Through juxtaposition, I discovered and highlighted narratives in tension. These tensions make clear the struggle for equity at a PWI and challenge the notion that progress is linear. Successful institutional diversity work with and for marginalized people requires three key characteristics: ongoingness, accountability, and relationship. One-time diversity events are not enough to change the conditions of institutional inequity. Rather, to combat tendencies towards White memory, Virginia Tech must create ongoing, accountable relationships by working in coalitions with marginalized communities. Ultimately, I argue that institutional work with marginalized communities must continue beyond special events to make material, in addition to symbolic, changes. / Doctor of Philosophy / White Memory and the (Counter)Stories We Might Tell examines public history narratives to explore how Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), tells stories about its relationships with marginalized communities. I ask what we should do with archives that exceed institutional progress narratives. Specifically, I foreground White memory, a process through which (mis)remembering public history creates a network of meaning-making practices that undergird and support hegemonic storytelling and worldmaking. To explore White memory, I constructed two case studies of Virginia Tech public history events. Using queer and decolonial archival methodologies, I practice what Mira Shimabukuro (2015) called "rhetorical attendance"; then, I construct counterstories to call storytellers to account for flattening and compression in progress narratives. First, I examined 1872 Forward, VT's sesquicentennial celebration, held in March 2022. Then, I explored Denim Day Do-Over, a 2019 event in which White memory obscured queer protests. Through juxtaposition, I discovered and highlighted narratives in tension. These tensions make clear the struggle for equity at a PWI and challenge the notion that progress is linear. Successful institutional diversity work with and for marginalized people requires three key characteristics: ongoingness, accountability, and relationship. One-time diversity events are not enough to change the conditions of institutional inequity. Rather, to combat tendencies towards White memory, Virginia Tech must create ongoing, accountable relationships by working in coalitions with marginalized communities. Ultimately, I argue that institutional work with marginalized communities must continue beyond special events to make material, in addition to symbolic, changes.

The world's poorest people, most of whom reside in under-developed nations, lack access to clean water and sanitation facilities, nutritious food, and education (UMP, 2005). These conditions are linked to malnutrition, disease, and low life expectancies (WHO). In an effort to reduce global poverty, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Under Goal 7c the UN denotes that by 2015 the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as compared to the proportion who do should be halved. As a response to this objective the international development (ID) sector has implemented projects aimed at increasing access to clean water and sanitation facilities, yet reports of high rate of project failure continue (Ika, 2012). In this thesis factors contributing to project failures are outlined based on the literature. In response to these findings this thesis explores the components of sustainability as it relates to the WASH sector and creates a framework for minimum standards that should be met in order for a WASH project to be considered successful. These standards are adapted based on the World Health Organization (WHO), a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that evaluates WASH projects called WASHCost, as well as the standards proposed by Carter et al (1999). Furthermore, it is argued that if implementing organizations are expected to monitor, evaluate and report on the environmental, social, economic as well as technical components of their implemented project, it will create a level of transparency that promotes organizational accountability that will inherently cause a shift towards more effective WASH projects.

This dissertation explores the passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) through John Kingdon’s (2003) Multiple Streams Theory. A policy analysis of the FFATA was conducted adapting Bardach’s Eightfold Path to Effective Problem Solving (2005) to explore the effectiveness of the FFATA. The dissertation focused on the attempt of the FFATA to account for the acceptable disbursement and use of disaster recovery payments and the ability of faith based initiatives to provide relief without compromising the separation of church and state principle through a coupling event. Additionally, this research sought to determine if faith based initiatives created a greater risk in awarding Stafford Act’s Public Assistance Grant Funds in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The study found the FFATA is not successfully meeting its goals and objectives in disaster recovery situations as it relates to Public Assistance Grants after Katrina because it fails to trace federal funding to the actual recipient of the grant. To determine if faith based initiatives created a greater risk in awarding Public Assistance Grant Funds after Katrina, 75 reports published by Office of Inspector General on Hurricane Katrina were reviewed to determine which types of compliance issues auditors have found with entities receiving federal funding under this grant program. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis and document analysis was performed on the collected data. Data showed that public entities have a higher percentage of questioned costs in comparison to faith based organizations. Content analysis revealed that 100 percent of public entities still spent the money on some other public purpose, but not necessarily a disaster-related purpose as required by federal rules specific to the PA Grant Program. Faith based organizations were more likely to have a violation of federal rules where the money ultimately was not traceable, indicating a greater risk of faith based organizations to violate the separation of church and state principle.

In this era of educational accountability, achieving and maintaining high levels of student academic performance is the goal of every school. State accountability models serve as the measure to determine if school districts are successfully educating students, and the responsibility of student academic success rests on the principal of each school. Effective leadership is a necessary component of successful schools, especially in rural school districts. The focus of this research was to explore teachers' perceptions of the leadership behaviors and practices of their principals and determine if relationships existed between the leadership behaviors and the schools' accountability ratings. A survey research design was utilized in this study of eight schools across three rural school districts in central Mississippi. The researcher utilized The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale to survey 121 teacher participants regarding their perceptions of principals' leadership behaviors or practices. The study revealed no statistically significant relationships existed between principals' leadership behaviors and school accountability ratings. However, the findings support existing literature on the indirect influence of principal leadership on student achievement.

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