This thesis is a study of the system of party-appointed arbitrators in international commercial arbitration: an attempt to provide a comprehensive assessment of the system, in which the main questions about it are addressed and a set of answers to those questions is offered. The assessment takes a three-pronged approach: historical, theoretical and empirical. It includes an historical analysis of unilateral nominations, a theoretical assessment of how the system presently works and a comparative empirical study of challenges of arbitrators in ICC practice. The theoretical assessment of the system of unilateral appointments is a critical analysis of arbitration rules, laws, case law, other authors' reflections on the system and other written materials (such as, for instance, the works of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and of the International Bar Association). This assessment addresses many questions, including, amongst others: the limits to the right of the parties to make unilateral appointments, the risks to the principle of equality of the parties in the constitution of the arbitral tribunal in certain situations (e.g. multiparty arbitrations, consolidation, joinder), the specific problems of bias in tribunals with party-appointed members, the repeat appointments of an arbitrator by the same party or counsel, the question of whether a different standard of impartiality and independence in party-appointed arbitrators makes any sense, the presumption that party-appointed arbitrators can do things that presiding arbitrators cannot (e.g. the so-called 'special role' of party-appointed arbitrators and certain unilateral communications between appointors and appointees) and the question of whether it is worth keeping the system of unilateral appointments as the default method for the constitution of multiple-member tribunals. The study also includes some suggestions on how to improve the system, namely in order to increase the trust of each party in the arbitrator appointed by the other party and to allow an accurate match between what arbitration end-users may want from party-appointed arbitrators and what they ultimately get.

Prof Rachmond Howard, newly appointed Director of the Nelspruit/Mmombela Campus, brings to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) a wealth of knowledge and experience spanning more than 20 years.

A selected group of school superintendents and school board members who had served during the transition from appointed to elected school boards in Virginia from 1992 – 2006 were interviewed to determine their perceptions of the positive and negative effects of the change. Superintendents indicated the transition from appointed to elected school boards had a somewhat negative effect, while school board members said there was no effect. The law providing for the direct election of school board members in Virginia was approved April 1, 1992, and was §22.1-57.1 through §22.1-57.5 of the Code of Virginia (Elected School Boards Act, 1992). Prior to this time no provisions for the election of school boards in the state were set, and school boards were appointed, either by the local governing body (Underwood, 1992) or by a school board selection commission (Code of Virginia, 2009, §22.1-36). The change in governance from appointed to elected school boards is an important phenomenon in Virginia , and the knowledge gained from the study could provide ways to lessen the stress which often exists in superintendent-school board relationships. / Ed. D.

Several significant breaches of ethics in the past few years have created renewed interest in the study of moral judgment. The examples used in this study include sub-prime lending, the Madoff investment scandal, and the torture of suspects in U.S. custody. The Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) theory was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg in 1969. Effectively, Kohlberg determined there were clearly defined stages of moral development in children--how they develop a sense of right, wrong, and justice. He expanded his research to adults and determined that human beings progressed through each of the six stages without skipping a stage and without reverting to a previous stage. James Rest later developed a survey instrument, the Defining Issues Test (DIT), designed to assess the stages of development, or moral maturity, of an individual without the lengthy interview process employed by Kohlberg in his research. Over 1,000 studies have since used the DIT. The DIT will be used in combination with a demographic survey to test the variables of educational level, age, gender, and ethical training against moral maturity. Research has provided mixed results for these variables when applied to the public sector. This study will compare the moral maturity of elected officials with that of appointed city managers who serve at the will of these elected officials. This paper will provide a discussion of the ethical concerns facing elected officials and appointed city managers as well as the potential hazards to good decision-making presented by differences in moral maturity, if they exist. The relationship of moral maturity and the other variables will also be discussed. Recommendations for public administrators and future research will be presented.

U.S. volunteer-dependent organizations continue to look for more effective ways to support their volunteer recruitment, training, and retention efforts. No prior research has evaluated what variables support sustained volunteerism for CASA volunteers. The purpose of this study was to investigate sustained volunteerism by evaluating the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) measured using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, motivation to volunteer using the Volunteers Functional Inventory, volunteer work engagement using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and intended retention of CASA volunteers. One hundred fifty five CASA volunteers from different CASA organizations responded to an on-line survey. Correlational and regression analysis of survey data showed global trait EI to be significantly related to volunteer's intent of finishing their current case and their intent to take a new case within six months after completing their current case. Trait EI and functional motivations to volunteer were significantly related to volunteer work engagement. High values and understanding motives to volunteer were significantly and negatively related to the volunteer considering quitting their current case. Social motivation to volunteer was significantly and positively related to the intent of taking another case within six months after completing the current case. This research is designed to benefit CASA organizations in moving closer to their goal of having a CASA volunteer for each child in the challenging state child welfare foster care systems.

Anecdotal evidence supports the belief among indigent individuals who are assigned defense counsel that they would be better represented by privately retained counsel. This perspective jeopardizes attorney effectiveness by reducing communication and trust between the attorney and client. Research on the effectiveness of counsel is sparse. The purpose of this quantitative study was to bridge this gap in knowledge by comparing the effectiveness of privately retained and publicly appointed counsel between 2008 and 2013, both before and after the imposition of state-wide compensation limitations on publicly appointed defense counsel. The theoretical framework was Stuntz's theory, which stresses that one part of the criminal justice system will be compensated for elsewhere in the system. Research questions focused on the success rates of publicly funded and privately retained counsel in jury trials in a large state district court in New England. Data were collected from court records and analyzed using tests of proportions and a binary logistic regression to determine the success rates of the types of counsel and whether appointed counsels' relative effectiveness changed after the compensation limitations were imposed in 2011. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in acquittal rates between counsel groups or for either counsel group before and after the imposition of the statewide compensation limits. Implications for positive social change include educating defendants on the effectiveness of publicly appointed counsel to enhance the trust within these attorney-client relationships, and improving the quality of discourse in legislative deliberations focused on weighing budget cuts to appointed counsel compensation with the risk to the fair administration of justice.

This dissertation examined if community college governing board structure and trustee selection influence institutional and student outcomes. This study employed a causal-comparative design and one-way between subjects ANOVA to examine the effects of board structure and trustee selection on the average cost of attendance, graduation rate, and salary after attending. The participants were 894 public community colleges in the United States. The independent variables included board structure (local boards versus statewide boards) and board composition (elected boards versus appointed boards). The independent variable data were collected from a report, Public Community College Governing Boards: Structure and Composition, compiled by the Association of Community College Trustees. The 3 dependent variables (i.e., average cost of attendance, graduation rate, and salary after attending) was collected from pre-existing publicly available data from the United States Department of Education College Scorecard. The research indicated that a locally governed board does result in a lower cost of attendance. The results also signaled that community college boards with elected boards of trustees have a lower cost of attendance and a higher salary after attending.

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The role of the school principal is second only to classroom instruction in terms of its impact on student achievement. Due to the evolving needs of students, schools, and school districts, the training of new principals should not end once they assume their first position. Research shows that while preparation programs designed to accredit new principals are critical, a growing body of literature is calling attention to the importance of professional growth opportunities that will further the development of educational leaders and address the day-to-day challenges of the role. To support this need, a number of research-based programs that are aligned with national educational leader standards create potentially valuable opportunities for ongoing professional development for principals. This qualitative study was designed to describe the perceptions and experiences of the recently appointed principals who participated in the Virginia Tech School Leaders Institute Recently Appointed Administrator Program (RAAP) and to examine how the RAAP contributed to their leadership development as a principal. Specifically, two questions guided this study: 1) How did principal participants indicate the RAAP contributed to their role as a principal? 2) What were the perceptions of principal participants regarding the impact of the RAAP on their leadership development? Three sources of data were used to generate findings: a demographic survey, primary data in the form of the transcription from a single focus group interview, and secondary data in the form of reflective synopses from 16 participants who took part in either the 2017, 2018, or 2019 program year. Four major findings supported by participant statements arose from this study: (a) participation in the RAAP informed them of the benefits of self-reflection and the awareness of self-care and balance as a principal, (b) by participating in the RAAP they found value in networking and building collegial relationships to overcome challenges as a recently appointed principal, (c) participation in the RAAP strengthened their leadership skills and increased their confidence, and (d) participation increased their knowledge and their ability to create actionable steps to support and implement new initiatives and programs in their schools. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Doctor of Education / This qualitative study was designed to describe the perceptions and experiences of the recently appointed principals who participated in the Virginia Tech School Leaders Institute Recently Appointed Administrator Program (RAAP) and to examine how the RAAP contributed to their leadership development as a principal. Two questions guided the development of this investigation: 1) How did principal participants indicate the RAAP contributed to their role as a principal? 2) What were the perceptions of principal participants regarding the impact of the RAAP on their leadership development? Three sources of data were used to generate findings: a demographic survey, the transcription from a single focus group interview, and secondary data from the reflective synopses of 16 participants who took park in either the 2017, 2018, or 2019 program year. Four major findings arose from this study: (a) participants indicated that participation in the RAAP informed them of the benefits of self-reflection and the awareness of self-care and balance as a principal, (b) participants indicated that by participating in the RAAP they found value in networking and building collegial relationships to overcome challenges as a recently appointed principal, (c) participants indicated that participation in the RAAP strengthened their leadership skills and increased their confidence, and (d) participants indicated that participation increased their knowledge and their ability to create actionable steps to support and implement new initiatives and programs in their schools. The findings from this study reinforce cited research on the importance of ongoing leadership development training and professional learning experiences beyond principal preparation programs for the recently appointed principal.

This thesis concerns the violation of the right to a fair trial by the appointment of ineffective public defenders. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees the right to appointed counsel if a defendant cannot afford it. The first section of the thesis focuses on how the history of the case law which constitutionally mandates effective appointed counsel for all United States citizens who cannot afford otherwise. However, this right is not being fulfilled for millions of American citizens. The judicial system is structured so that many indigent accused criminals are convinced by their overworked and underpaid public defenders to plead guilty. This "meet and plead" style of representation expedites the trial process at the expense of indigent defendants. The second section covers the epidemic of fair trial rights violations in the United States. In order to fix this problem there are solutions that the Supreme Court, trial courts, and the legislature can address. The third and final section concludes the thesis with a discussion of possible remedies for the deficiencies of the American public defender conglomerate.