<p> On October 1st of every year, college campuses throughout the United States are required to publish an annual security report (ASR), which provides an overview of the institution&rsquo;s security program. The ASR includes policies and procedures as well as crime statistics for the previous 3 years. The intent of the Clery Act was to provide valuable information on campus safety and security so that students, faculty, and staff can make more informed decisions as to either attend and/or work at a specific institution. This study examined how knowledgeable campus security authorities (CSAs) are with respect to these ASRs, also known as the Clery Act. Furthermore, this research examined whether or not the Act has influence on the success of the institutions&rsquo; missions. This is a qualitative study, which consists of data collected from structured interviews from 14 participants from 2 institutions representing four-year, for-profit colleges. Questions asked during these structured interviews focused on each respondent&rsquo;s knowledge of the Clery Act and its various provisions. The study revealed that the CSAs were unsure whether the Clery Act made college campuses safer; they were aware of the Act but not very familiar with the provisions of the Act; they were unable to identify resources other than additional personnel-power; and finally, they were familiar with the annual requirement of the Act and the published data but not with other provisions of the Act.</p>

<p> This research advances a water infrastructure vulnerability index (WIVI) in order to assess levels of susceptibility within the water sector and its respective infrastructure system(s). WIVI provides an assessment tool that can assist decision makers and policymakers in making better investment decisions supported by a prudent data-driven instrument. The index is dependent upon individual water utility data that are publically available, making it a transparent process that is repeatable and reproducible. Normalization of the data was used to establish baselines, and indicators were developed to represent the different levels of a functional water utility. WIVI provides a quantifiable snapshot of a water utility&rsquo;s past and present state of vulnerability. WIVI is a supportive tool that assists in data-driven decision management, which will determine the direction and allocation of financial infrastructure upgrades pertaining to a water system&rsquo;s need to rehabilitate, replace, or abandon current water system infrastructure.</p>

This thesis examines the optimal role for public relations practitioners to play in managing the communications of disclosure situations. The contribution to knowledge in this work is the clarification of decision-making around organizational disclosures and the role public relations practitioners play in these sometimes difficult and sensitive situations. Decision making around the disclosure of organizational information has not been given much attention in the public relations and communications management literature. While other fields such as medicine and finance have researched the merits of disclosure and transparency for a number of years, the topic has evaded in depth academic examination in communications literature. Given the involvement of public relations practitioners in organizational disclosures, it is somewhat surprising that a model for managing the communications of these situations has not been proposed previously in published research. This thesis closes this gap by proposing a normative, theoretical model that is grounded in practice, and uses ethical decision-making, to assist communicators in developing strategies for managing disclosure events and improving the transparency of their organizations to the public. Using the Strauss and Corbin (1998) approach to Grounded Theory, this thesis explored the topic of disclosure with senior level Canadian public relations practitioners to elicit key themes prior to the development of an initial model which was then tested through further empirical research and user-group contact. The model presented in this thesis is intended to help public relations practitioners and their organizations’ senior management teams, structure their thoughts about disclosing information and develop a communication strategy through a step-wise process that works to find a balance between the needs of the organization and the information needs of stakeholders to make an informed decision about the situation. This thesis provides unique insights into practitioner dilemmas and challenges; highlights a number of important themes and conceptual issues that have not received attention to date; and offers a model for practice.

Zugl.: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2008

Thesis (M Nursing)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Wade G. Hill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-37).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX215640.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 191 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-167).

Thesis (M.Hous.M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 53-55)

<p>Rapid global urbanization over the last few decades has intensified the challenge of providing adequate water and sanitation services to urban residents. Meeting this challenge has been the focus of domestic and international development efforts, including Millennium Development Goal 7.C. This research studies three institutional and governance attributes theorized to improve government service outcomes, testing hypotheses that the attributes are associated with greater country progress on providing urban water and sanitation access. The attributes are: a) decentralized services; b) sector-wide strategy and investment coordination; and c) civil society engagement. Country-level experience is analyzed using a series of ordered logistic regression models for a sample of 75 low- and middle-income countries. UN GLAAS survey data is used to derive country-specific variables for the three attributes. These, along with control variables representing country background conditions, are analyzed relative to four country progress outcome variables, two each for water and sanitation. The outcome variables, (covering the 2000 to 2012 time period), are derived from the UN JMP dataset that tracks urban access rates by country. Based on results from these models, four country case studies look in-depth at implementation of the attributes and highlight aspects that can help or impede country progress. Overall, findings show that decentralization is helpful to sanitation progress, but not water progress, likely due limitations of capacity and funding faced by sub-national levels of government. Three explanations are proposed for why decentralization may impact water and sanitation differently. Results for sector planning were mostly inconclusive, except that it was shown helpful to water progress over the 12-year period. Study of this attribute would benefit from additional wide-scale data collection. Civil society engagement was consistently shown to help country progress in both water and sanitation, and several examples of engagement are profiled to demonstrate how it can improve service outcomes. The last chapter relates findings to theories about government provision of public goods. The extent to which the three attributes help achieve efficiency, supply, equity, and social welfare goals is discussed. Finally, practical recommendations for strengthening sector institutions and governance are presented with application to governments and international aid donors.