The Potential to Be the Most Historic Higher Education Reform Effort of Our Time: Implementation of AB705 As a result of California Assembly Bill 705(AB705, 2017) and California Assembly Bill 1705 (AB1705, 2021), most 1st-year students will enroll directly into transfer level math and/or English courses (Baca, 2021; Lopez, 2022; Melguizo et al., 2022; Sims, 2020). Students once placed into remedial coursework before enrolling in transfer level coursework may need more student support services to ensure course completion and retention (Atkins & Beggs, 2017; Baca, 2021; Cook, 2016; Lopez, 2022; Melguizo et al., 2022; Sims, 2020). The recent implementation of AB705 allows for community colleges to redesign pedagogical practices and restructure student support to address equity gaps and promote student success (Sims, 2020). Prior to AB705, remedial math and English course sequences were often gatekeepers that prevented students of color from completing their educational goals (Bailey, 2015; Bailey et al., 2013; Bragg et al., 2019; McClenney, 2019). As colleges move toward full compliance of AB705 and AB1705, colleges should have a comprehensive understanding of faculty members’ experiences as they implement reform efforts. Faculty perceptions of how the legislation has impacted student equity and success outcomes can inform continued, reiterative, and intentional improvements to reform initiatives. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews of English faculty members to examine if AB705 served as a catalyst for transformative change across academic and student support structures at community colleges. This study uncovered reform recommendations and best practices colleges can implement as they redesign educational support structures at their colleges.

This Dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay studies the causal impacts of compensation disclosure on executive compensation, turnover, and executives’ job responsibilities. We find that, after the SEC mandates the disclosure of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)’ compensation in 2006, CFO pay increases significantly relative to CEO pay, particularly in firms most affected by the mandate. CFOs are more likely to leave their firms following poor performance. The results are absent for the CEO or other executives, suggesting they are unique outcomes of enhanced CFO compensation disclosures. The evidence is consistent with more intense monitoring following the disclosure mandate. CFOs require additional compensation for the loss of private benefits due to greater monitoring and are subject to greater internal discipline. There is also some evidence that the CFOs hide bad news and lower corporate reporting quality after the mandate, suggesting that CFOs engage in more short-term behavior to boost their performance and avoid termination. The second essay of my dissertation focuses on the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle - the negative relation between estimated idiosyncratic volatility and the subsequent month returns documented by Ang et al (2006). We document a systematic pattern of temporary increases in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility for the quintile of stocks with the highest estimated idiosyncratic volatility in a given month. A large portion of this temporary increase in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility is reversed in the subsequent month. This temporary increase in the idiosyncratic volatility for the quintile of stocks with the highest estimated idiosyncratic volatility is associated with relatively large positive returns (positive abnormal returns) in the estimation month and relatively low returns (negative abnormal returns) in the subsequent month. Our evidence shows that these temporary increases in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and the related positive and negative abnormal returns in the estimation and subsequent months, respectively, create a negative relation between the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent month returns documented in the prior literature (Ang et al. 2006). We find no significant relation between idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent returns for eighty percent of the stocks that do not exhibit large changes in idiosyncratic volatility despite large differences in the levels of their idiosyncratic volatility. Finally, there is no relation between the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent returns after a lag of 3 months when the abnormal returns associated with temporary changes are no longer present. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that there is no relation between the true underlying idiosyncratic volatility and expected returns, and that the previously documented negative relation between estimated idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent month’s returns is being driven by temporary one-month increases in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and the associated abnormal returns for a subset of stocks. / Ph. D.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of school governing bodies (SGBs) regarding their overall mandate in the Free State Province. The governance mandate, as stated in the South African Schools Act, requires the SGB to ―promote the best interests of the school and strive to ensure its development through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school‖. An in-depth literature review on governance and international and intercontinental practices revealed the school governance mandate as meaning that the SGB must provide the school with a strategic direction; act as critical friend to the school; and hold the school to account. These roles essentially describe the school governance mandate. To this end, a questionnaire was used to determine how effective SGBs executed this mandate in the Free State Province, with a population of principals, SGB chairpersons, educator- governors and non-teaching staff-governors. Results obtained through computing frequency analyses, rank orders, Pearson‘s correlation, ANOVA and the Tukey HSD tests of respondents‘ perceptions of governance effectiveness items and dimensions indicated that there were statistically different perceptions regarding how effective SGB were and that these were of significant and practical effect. This meant that the effectiveness of SGBs regarding their overall mandate was indeterminate and that SGB did well in some areas of governance and not too well in others. The conclusion drawn from the study was that the structural composition of SGBs was limited SGBs‘ effectiveness regarding their governance mandate. Therefore, the main recommendation is that the SGBs need to be restructured. The recommended Two-Tier Approach to school governance proposes a structure consisting of the executive tier: responsible for policy formulation and implementation, which is a strategic-accountability role; and the non-executive tier: responsible for scrutiny-accountability, which entails the roles of acting as a critical friend and holding the school to account.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of school governing bodies (SGBs) regarding their overall mandate in the Free State Province. The governance mandate, as stated in the South African Schools Act, requires the SGB to ―promote the best interests of the school and strive to ensure its development through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school‖. An in-depth literature review on governance and international and intercontinental practices revealed the school governance mandate as meaning that the SGB must provide the school with a strategic direction; act as critical friend to the school; and hold the school to account. These roles essentially describe the school governance mandate. To this end, a questionnaire was used to determine how effective SGBs executed this mandate in the Free State Province, with a population of principals, SGB chairpersons, educator- governors and non-teaching staff-governors. Results obtained through computing frequency analyses, rank orders, Pearson‘s correlation, ANOVA and the Tukey HSD tests of respondents‘ perceptions of governance effectiveness items and dimensions indicated that there were statistically different perceptions regarding how effective SGB were and that these were of significant and practical effect. This meant that the effectiveness of SGBs regarding their overall mandate was indeterminate and that SGB did well in some areas of governance and not too well in others. The conclusion drawn from the study was that the structural composition of SGBs was limited SGBs‘ effectiveness regarding their governance mandate. Therefore, the main recommendation is that the SGBs need to be restructured. The recommended Two-Tier Approach to school governance proposes a structure consisting of the executive tier: responsible for policy formulation and implementation, which is a strategic-accountability role; and the non-executive tier: responsible for scrutiny-accountability, which entails the roles of acting as a critical friend and holding the school to account.

The starting point of this study is a letter to the Swedish Research Council which maintained the difficulty to reconcile chemistry with open access. Previous studies show that when other sciences is increasing in both the deposition rate and selection of OA journals, there is a lull in chemistry. The purpose of the master thesis is to gain an understanding of chemists reluctance to open access in the light of the implementation of Chalmers' mandating open access policy and through field theoretical perspectives understand why. The survey is conducted with a qualitative approach and the empirical data consist of interview material from nine interviews that took place at Chalmers Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. The interviews show that chemists believe that the idea of open access is certainly sympathetic but incompatible with the chemical sciences. It is believed that the discipline´s traditions, practice and publishing culture as well as opportunities for career differs from other sciences, including what open access is concerned. This uniqueness has not been taken into account in the implementation of OA policies of funding agencies and universities, according to the informants. Evaluations of other universities implementations of open acces policies have identified success factors like support, legal advice and hands-on help in self-archiving. According to the results of this thesis, functionality and infrastructure appears to be less significant if university management and funders does not establish an atmosphere of alliance and thus undermines confidence in the policy and its proponents. The study confirms the importance of the researchers feel invited and involved in the process of change.

Thesis advisor: Timothy W. Crawford / Following the devastation UN peacekeeping experienced in the 1990s, the United Nations Panel on Peace Operations wrote a report, known as the Brahimi Report, that contained twenty key recommendations as how to make peacekeeping more effective and efficient. These recommendations addressed certain fundamental flaws in peacekeeping practices and procedures. This paper discusses the purpose behind several key recommendations and examines the political and internal debate surrounding their implementation. It addresses the effect of the Brahimi Report on UN reform and concludes that the Brahimi Report has spurred a long needed examination of peacekeeping and has influenced progress in most areas, even though most of the actual suggestions of the Panel were not followed. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Libéré de l'occupation Ottomane en fin de première Guerre Mondiale et placé sous mandat français jusqu'à son indépendance en 1943, le Liban va réussir à trouver une stabilité sécuritaire et économique jusqu'en 1975. En effet le 13 avril 1975, le Liban entre dans une longue période de guerre civile durant laquelle la capitale Beyrouth est divisée en deux parties : Beyrouth Est pour les Chrétiens et Beyrouth Ouest pour les Musulmans. L'Accord du Taëf signé en 1990 va mettre fin à cette guerre civile et place le pays sous une tutelle syrienne qui va durer jusqu'à l'assassinat de l'ancien premier ministre Rafic Hariri en 2005. Au moment où l'emplacement géographique du Liban, qui le place au centre du conflit arabo-israélien, vient s'ajouter aux différences inter/intra-communautaires, nous nous demandons dans quelle mesure le développement et l'extension du football, modeste élément de cette grande histoire, en subissent les effets. Nous nous interrogeons plus précisément, comment ce sport s'est-il développé au Liban, quelles institutions ont été impliquées et la spécificité de la situation libanaise autorise-t-elle d'éventuelles comparaisons avec le développement du football ailleurs dans le monde ? Cette thèse, appuyée sur les archives locales, la presse spécialisée et divers entretiens avec des dirigeants et des joueurs libanais, tente de répondre à ces questions en montrant comment, en premier temps, le football va passer d'un sport universitaire à un sport populaire, puis en traçant l'histoire de l'institutionnalisation du football en 1933 et des années de gloire jusqu'à l'éclatement de la guerre civile en 1975. Et en montrant en dernier lieu comment la période de la guerre civile s'inscrit en réalité dans un temps long qui voit le confessionnalisme, c'est-à-dire le partage des pouvoirs en fonction de la communauté confessionnelle, s'imposer au Liban dans tous les secteurs de la société et en montrant comment le Liban va continuer à subir les conséquences de cette guerre / After being liberated from the Ottoman occupation in the end of the First World War and placed under the French mandate until its independence in 1943, Lebanon succeeded to maintain a certain stability on both economic and security levels until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975, and more specifically on April 13 of this year, when Beirut was divided into two clans: the Eastern clan inhabited by Christians and the Western clan inhabited by Muslims. The Taif Agreement (officially, the Document of National Accord) was the document that provided the basis for the ending of the civil war and agreed on the Syrian trusteeship that will last until the assassination of the Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. Since Lebanon’s geographical location inserts him in the heart of the Israeli Arab conflict and comes along with the inter and intra community differences, we wonder to what extent the development and the expansion of the football, a humble element in this large History, would undergo the effects. We wonder how has this sport developed in Lebanon, which institutions were involved? Does the situation in Lebanon allow such comparisons with the development of football elsewhere in the world? This paper tries to answer these questions thanks to local archives, specialized press and various interviews with Lebanese sport leaders and players. It shows in first place how the football has moved from being a university sport to a popular one, it traces in the second place the history of the football institutionalization in 1993 and during the years of glory until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975. It also shows that the civil war was rooted in reality in a long-term period during which confessionalism, i.e. the share of power based on the belonging to a religion, became the rule in most sectors of the Lebanese society

Esta dissertação analisa a representação direta voluntária a partir de três âmbitos: (i) histórico, (ii) estrutural e (iii) econômico. O perfil histórico é abordado a partir de uma breve construção historiográfica do desenvolvimento da representação desde o período clássico romano, passando pela Idade Média e suas transmutações, com concessões ao brocardo romano alteri stipulari nemo potest, até a construção proposta pela pandectística germânica na figura de Laband. A construção labandiana, lapidada por Hupka, é analisada, posteriormente, sob a perspectiva civilista atual, retomando algumas propostas do modelo idealizado por Laband-Hupka e algumas críticas a este modelo, trazendo como ponto central a questão da abstração da representação em relação ao contrato de mandato e outras figuras gestórias. A figura representativa é, então, colocada sob análise econômica, sob a lupa da Análise Econômica do Direito. A análise ultrapassa a questão de economia de custos que a representação oferece, e que é de meridiana clareza, para analisar, sob a perspectiva da Teoria de Agência e da Teoria de Custos de Transação, os custos gerados por esta figura na negociação e conclusão de contratos / This dissertation analyzes the direct and voluntary representation from three different scopes: (i) historical, (ii) structural, and (iii) economical. The historic profile is broached from a brief historiographical construction of the development of representation from tha classical Roman period, through the Middle Ages and its transmutations, with concessions made to the Roman maxim alteri stipulari nemo potest, until the construction proposed by German Pandect author, Laband. The Laband construction, improved by Hupka, is analyzed, subsequently, under the present civil perspective, retaking some of the proposals of the model idealized by Laband-Hupka and some criticism to this model, bringing as central point of discussion the abstraction of representations towards the contract of mandate and other management relationships. The representative figure is, then, put under economical analysis, under the magnifying glass of Law and Economics. The analysis exceeds the matter of economy of costs that is offered by representation, and which is rather explicit, to analyze, under the perspective of the Agency Theorie and the Costs of Transaction Theorie, the costs generated by this figure in transaction and closing of contracts

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2006 / Refer to document

Environmental goals such as urban water conservation and pollution control regulations are typically achieved through price and non-price methods. This dissertation offers an analysis of the non-price approaches, including the rationing of water for particular users, installation of particular technologies, and adoption of particular certifications to achieve environmental goals. To begin, an analysis of California’s 2015 urban water conservation mandate was performed. Results indicate that the average welfare loss of the mandate is $6,107 per acre-foot of restriction in Northern California and $2,757 per acre-foot of restriction in Southern California. In terms of monthly household-level willingness-to-pay (WTP) to avoid the mandate, results illustrate that households have a WTP between $5 and $200 per month. Northern Californian utilities were generally in compliance with their mandated conservation targets, while Southern Californian utilities tended to fall short. The second essay focuses on analyzing how web-based Home Water Use Reports (HWURs) affect household-level water consumption in Folsom City, California. The HWURs under study, offered by the company Dropcountr (DC), share social comparisons, consumption analytics, and conservation information to residential accounts, primarily through digital communications. We found that there is a 7.8% reduction in average daily household water consumption for a typical household under treatment of the DC program. Results suggest that the effect of DC varies by the baseline consumption quintile, the number of months in the program, the day of the week, message type, and enrollment wave. Furthermore, we find that indicate these responses to DC program likely come from the information channel rather than moral suasion. The final essay studies the effectiveness of ISO-14001 on pollution reduction as a non-price pollution control approach. Manufacturers have been increasingly relying on environmental management systems (such as ISO 14001 based ones) to comply with government regulations and reduce waste. In this essay, we investigated the impact of ISO 14001 certification on manufacturers’ toxic release by release level. Results show that ISO 14001 had a negative and statistically significant effect on the top 10% manufacturing sites regarding the on-site toxic release, but it did not reduce off-site toxic release. Therefore, one should not expect ISO 14001 to have a uniform impact on manufacturing sites’ environmental performance. For large firms, encouraging voluntary adoption of ISO 14001 might be an effective government strategy to reduce on-site pollution.