The era of "customer satisfaction" brings students to colleges who are increasingly identifying themselves as customers. Competition among a growing number of institutions and learning organizations is sharpening the desire of institutions to deliver high quality service in order to attract and retain students. Some examples of interactions where service quality may affect satisfaction are accessible and prompt service, knowledgeable assistance and personal attention. The use of the SERVQUAL survey instrument offers a fruitful opportunity for student services managers to assess student satisfaction with service quality. Insofar as satisfaction may affect student desire to attend, retention, and word-of mouth recommendations, colleges should include service quality assessment in their efforts to be accountable for the effectiveness of their services. This study was conducted at a suburban community college, using a cluster sampling methodology, focused on students in college transfer and professional/technical courses. Student expectations and perceptions of service quality in Registration, Financial Aid, Counseling, Career Center and Library services were probed. Data analysis yielded discernible patterns in student satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Students placed less emphasis on the tangible aspects of service quality, such as the appearance of facilities and brochures, and more emphasis on aspects that provide them with reliable services and demonstrate attention to their personal needs. The quality of some Financial Aid services, as well as office hours among all five services, were identified as needing further examination. Some significant differences between male and female respondents, and between Caucasians and Students of Color were found. Because SERVQUAL offers a targeted method of identifying areas that can improve student satisfaction, this strategy offers some direct and perhaps cost-effective ways of implementing action as a result of assessment research. This may make it appealing to other community colleges. Implementation by other community colleges would be helpful in building a database and reference points about student satisfaction with service quality. / Graduation date: 2000

Although nearshore macroinvertebrates are integral members of high mountain lentic systems, knowledge of ecological factors influencing their distributions is limited. Factors affecting distributions of nearshore macroinvertebrates were investigated, including microhabitat use and vertebrate predation, in the oligotrophic lakes of North Cascades National Park Service Complex, Washington, USA, and the conformity of distribution with a lake classification system was assessed (Lomnicky, unpublished manuscript; Liss et al. 1991). Forty-one lakes were assigned to six classification categories based on vegetation zone (forest, subalpine, alpine), elevation, and position relative to the west or east side of the crest of the Cascade Range. These classification variables represented fundamental characteristics of the terrestrial environment that indirectly reflected geology and climate. This geoclimatic perspective provided a broad, integrative framework for expressing the physical environment of lakes. Habitat conditions and macroinvertebrate distributions in study lakes were studied from 1989 through 1991. Distributions varied according to vegetation zone, elevation, and crest position, and reflected the concordance between habitat conditions and organism life history requirements. Habitat parameters affecting distributions included water temperature, the kinds of substrates in benthic microhabitats, water chemistry, and, to a limited extent, the presence of vertebrate predators. The number of taxa per lake was positively correlated with maximum temperature and negatively correlated with elevation. Forest zone lakes tended to have the highest number of taxa and alpine lakes the lowest. Substrates in nearshore microhabitats varied with vegetation zone. Organic substrates were more predominant than inorganic substrates in forest zone lakes. Organic substrates declined and inorganic substrates increased in the subalpine zone. There were virtually no organic substrates in alpine lakes. Taxa were placed into groups based on substrate preference. Ordinations indicated that the proportion of taxa in inorganic and organic-based substrate preference groups paralleled vegetation zone-substrate relationships. Lake water hardness and pH, as well as the presence of vertebrate predators affected the distribution of several taxa. Gastropods were limited to three forest lakes by their water hardness and pH requirements, and the dytiscid beetle, Potamonectes qriseostriatus appeared to be absent from forest lakes due, in part, to the pH requirements of this taxon. The distribution of three taxa (Taenionema, Ameletus, Desmona) appeared to be affected by the presence of vertebrate predators (salamanders and trout). Discriminant analysis was used to test the reliability of lake classification based on terrestrial characteristics. Discriminant analysis assigned lakes to categories based on similarities in kinds of substrates, substrate preference groups, and taxa. Strong concordance between both methods of lake classification supported the interconnection between terrestrial characteristics and processes and the abiotic and biotic conditions in lakes. / Graduation date: 1994

Graduation date: 1994

Nine west-northwest-trending faults on the continental margin of Oregon and Washington, between 43° 05'N and 470 20'N latitude, have been mapped using seismic reflection, sidescan sonar, submersibles, and swath bathymetry. Five of these oblique faults are found on both the Juan de Fuca and North American plates, and offset abyssal plain sedimentary units left-laterally from 2.0 to 5.5 km. These five faults extend 8-18 km northwestward from the deformation front. The remaining four faults, found only on the North American plate, are also inferred to have a left-lateral slip sense. The age of the Wecoma fault on the abyssal plain is 600±50 ka, and has an average slip rate of 7-1 0 mm/year. Slip rates of the other four abyssal plain faults are 5.5 ± 2 - 6. 7 ± 3 mm/yr. These faults are active, as indicated by offset of the youngest sedimentary units, surficial fault scarps, offsets of surficial channels, and deep fluid venting. All nine faults have been surveyed on the continental slope using SeaMARC 1A sidescan sonar, and three of them were surveyed with a high-resolution AMS 150 sidescan sonar on the continental shelf off central Oregon. On the continental slope, the faults are expressed as linear, high-angle WNW trending scarps, and WNW trending fault-parallel folds that we interpret as flower structures. Active structures on the shelf include folds trending from NNE to WNW and associated flexural slip thrust faulting; NNW to N trending right-lateral strike-slip faults; and WNW trending left-lateral strike-slip faults. Some of these structures intersect the coast and can be correlated with onshore Quaternary faults and folds, and others are suspected to be deforming the coastal region. These structures may be contributing to the coastal marsh stratigraphic record of co-seismic subsidence events in the Holocene. We postulate that the set of nine WNW trending left-lateral strike-slip faults extend and rotate the forearc clockwise, absorbing most or all of the arc parallel component of plate convergence. The high rate of forearc deformation implies that the Cascadia forearc may lack the rigidity to generate M > 8.2 earthquakes. From a comparison of Cascadia seismogenic zone geometry to data from circum-Pacific great earthquakes of this century, the maximum Cascadia rupture is estimated to be 500 to 600 km in length, with a 150-400 km rupture length in best agreement with historical data. / Graduation date: 1994

Amusement space embodies hegemonic and Utopian dialogue concerning urban conditions. Throughout the twentieth century, two rival urban visions have reigned: the Coney Island model, a chancy, participatory theatre where patrons can confront head-on current conditions; and the Disney model, a carefully planned setting where guests are made to feel comfortable and secure. The current ascendancy of the Disney model, evident in urban and suburban landscapes increasingly shaped in the Disney image, has attracted the attention -- and alarm --of critics who interpret this trend as urban planning with a 'sinister twist.' A case study of Disney's involvement with Seattle Center, originally the site of the 1962 World's Fair and now Seattle's premier urban park, demonstrates, however, that people actively challenge, negotiate, and reform the Disney model to meet their needs by infusing the space with traces of the rival Coney model. The suggestions Disney made for renovation of Seattle Center sparked a city-wide debate that centred on the roles of local participation, cultural sensitivity, and aesthetic design in urban space; Disney was found lacking on all accounts and eventually rejected entirely. Seattle's experience with Disney demonstrates that amusement space offers a rich terrain upon which people can dream about, and implement, urban change.

This study examines the relationship between atomic energy production and community identity in Richland, Washington. Over the past fifty years, the identity of southeastern Washington has been intimately tied to production and industry at the Hanford Site. Today, however, environmental restoration and waste management programs have replaced plutonium production. The decline of the nuclear industry has influenced reinterpretations of local history and community identity through public display, commodity goods, and the re-scripting of historical texts. / Department of Anthropology

Riparian management in the Pacific Northwest has become an Increasingly common way to conserve biodiversity on landscapes managed for timber production. The efficacy of two different riparian buffer widths in providing habitat for terrestrial amphibians was assessed using a Before-After-Control-Impact approach. My findings suggest that there is no global response by terrestrial amphibians to logging or to the retention of riparian management zones in the US Pacific Northwest. Rather, species showed individual responses that varied over time and between treatments and transects. Overall, a minimum riparian buffer width of 30 m was sufficient to maintain the relative abundance and richness of terrestrial amphibians at levels commensurate with pre-harvest conditions. A co-inertia analysis revealed that habitat associations changed little over time and that there were no significant differences between buffered sites suggesting that the treatments applied were biologically insignificant. The benefits of retaining riparian forest are identified and discussed in the context of maintaining biodiversity and conserving terrestrial amphibians in western Washington.

This thesis describes the aboriginal and contemporary social organization of the Coast Salish people of southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington State, with a focus on the Squamish Nation whose Reserves are situated in North Vancouver and the Howe Sound area. It is based on field research undertaken over a 30-year period and on published and unpublished sources. The thesis explores the construction of kinship and social groups among the Coast Salish, and the transformation of these relationships over time and in various historical circumstances, from the mid-19th century to the present day. Drawing upon the theoretical approaches of William Davenport (1959), Raymond Firth (1963) and Anthony Cohen (1985), among others, the thesis discusses key components of Coast Salish social organization and identity, including a group's contrasting identity and relation to the groups within its ambit of comparison, the association of specific social units with territory, and the expression of status in both traditional and contemporary society. Specific findings document a shift to nuclear family households, the adoption of English kinship terms, the development of hereditary and elected leadership, and the emergence of the Tribe and the First Nation as primary symbols of identity in the 20th century. Some current issues resulting from the impact of change are examined in the context of naming ceremonies and disputes over inherited property, including ancestral names. The thesis argues that the diversity and complexity of neither the traditional nor transformed expressions of Coast Salish social organization find congruence with models of aboriginal society being deployed by contemporary Courts and Treaty negotiators. Issues of territorial "overlap" presently impeding treaty negotiation among BC's Coast Salish peoples were nevertheless predictable, for like some of the world's other cognatic societies, the Coast Salish could hold discrete notions of identity simultaneously. In conclusion, the thesis examines briefly the application to the Coast Salish of Lévi-Strauss' "House-society" as a specific form of social organization.

Graduation date: 1980

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [189]-194).