Academic literature on the topic 'United States. Rural Manpower Service'

Schools throughout the United States apply comprehensive community partnership strategies to address students’ in- and out-of-school needs. Drawing from models like the Harlem Children’s Zone, Promise Neighborhoods, and full-service community schools, such strategies call for diverse professionals to reach beyond their own organizations to collaborate with complementary partners. Extant research on cross-sector collaboration focuses disproportionately on urban settings. This qualitative study examined three years of cross-sector collaboration in “Midvale,” a rural community in the western United States. Applying the conceptual framework of social frontiers, it illuminates how issues of difference, competition, and resource constraint impacted cross-sector collaboration in Midvale’s rural context.

Objectives. To describe characteristics of rural hospitals in the United States by whether they provide labor and delivery (obstetric) care for pregnant patients. Methods. We used the 2017 American Hospital Association Annual Survey to identify rural hospitals and describe their characteristics based on the lack or provision of obstetric services. Results. Among the 2019 rural hospitals in the United States, 51% (n = 1032) of rural hospitals did not provide obstetric care. These hospitals were more often located in rural noncore counties (counties with no town of more than 10 000 residents). Rural hospitals without obstetrics also had lower average daily censuses, were more likely to be government owned or for profit compared with nonprofit ownership, and were more likely to not have an emergency department compared with hospitals providing obstetric care (P for all comparisons < .001). Conclusions. Rural US hospitals that do not provide obstetric care are located in more sparsely populated rural locations and are smaller than hospitals providing obstetric care. Public Health Implications. Understanding the characteristics of rural hospitals by lack or provision of obstetric services is important to clinical and policy efforts to ensure safe maternity care for rural residents.

The purpose of this research is to project historical national development patterns (sprawl, or uncontrolled growth) into the future and measure the impacts of this development compared with a more controlled development future. The costs of sprawl are calculated from 25-year growth projections in which resulting impacts are recorded in each of 3,100 counties nationwide. Unique regional definitions of urban, suburban, rural, and undeveloped counties are formulated according to density and prior levels of development. Then sprawl is defined as significant residential and nonresidential development in rural and undeveloped counties. Sprawl is subsequently controlled both within a region and within a county to contain growth in the most developed portions of each, using the equivalent of urban growth boundaries at the regional level and urban service areas at the county level. A future with and without controls generates the differences in development in particular locations. Differences in counties with respect to land conversion rates, road development requirements, housing unit mix and costs, and public-service availability and costs determine growth impacts under the two scenarios. The difference between the two analyses provides empirical evidence of the likely impact of a future with sprawl as opposed to one in which it is reduced.

Our belief that there is a superagency that goes to work when a disaster occurs is unfounded. What does exist is a network of integrating expertise and resources that are escalated from different routine activities to cooperatively respond to one event. This paper concerns the governmental approach in one area, New York City.In the United States, federal and state laws exist to minimize the effects of disasters, by identifying measures to prevent or mitigate them, developing mechanisms to coordinate the use of resource and manpower during disasters, and by providing recovery and redevelopment following a disaster. These functions and services are coordinated to the maximum extent with comparable activities of local state and federal governments, and many voluntary private agencies. Organizational responsibility follows a bi-directional flow from federal to state to county-, city-, town- and village level, and in the reverse (Fig. 1). The roles and responsibilities depend on the type of disaster (Fig. 2) and hence the response and activity needed. Response activities include need for clothing, crisis counseling, debris removal and disposal, disease and pest control, equipment and supplies, evacuation, food provisions, fuel provisions, housing and shelter, identification and disposition of the dead, labor pools, law and order, medical care and treatment, power provision, protective measures, search and rescue, sewage control, transportation, the need to waiver codes, water provisions, and weather forecasting.

Although trauma undertriage has been widely discussed in the literature, undertriage in the pediatric trauma population remains understudied. Using the 2009-2013 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, we assessed the national undertriage rate in pediatric major trauma patients (age ≤16 years and injury severity score [ISS] >15), and identified factors associated with pediatric trauma undertriage. Nationally, 21.7% of pediatric major trauma patients were undertriaged. Children living in rural areas were more likely to be undertriaged ( P = .02), as were those without insurance ( P = .00). Children with life-threatening injuries were less likely to be undertriaged ( P < .0001), as were those with chronic conditions ( P < .0001). Improving access to specialized pediatric trauma care through innovative service delivery models may reduce undertriage and improve outcomes for pediatric major trauma patients.

The purpose of the current study was to compare the use of virtual discussion boards in various educational settings in the United States and Costa Rica. Participants included professors of education, in-service and pre-service teachers in the United States and Costa Rica where a survey was used that included demographic, knowledge, attitude, and behavioral questions regarding the use of virtual discussion boards. Results indicated that sixty-two percent of the participants used discussion boards in an educational setting. Instructors reported creating discussion board prompts that were constructivist in nature, and responses were frequently assessed for reflection, application, or collaboration. Findings show implications for educators in Costa Rica the United States due to the extensive rural landscape that perpetuates a need for alternative forms of communication and distance learning as well as to provide a comparison to how this technology is used in United States educational settings.

This thesis explores the civilian career experiences of United States Naval Academy (USNA) graduates who have left military service. The data comes from a 2004 survey of USNA graduates from the classes of 1986 through 1996. This thesis analyzes the effect of human capital accumulated via the USNA education, via follow-on military experiences, and via career preparation on civilian salary and satisfaction. Both the first salary after leaving the military service and the current salary are analyzed. Both salary models find that varsity athletes, honors graduates, submariners, and those who achieved higher military ranks earn more than their classmates. Military tenure increases civilian salary, but the effect diminishes after a certain point. Selective Reservists consistently earn lower civilian salaries. The write-in responses reveal that leadership, academics, time management and other personal skills provide the most influential USNA experiences on current civilian jobs. While 84 percent describe themselves as satisfied, a satisfaction model is estimated to examine for trade-offs between salary and satisfaction. Satisfaction is further examined by evaluating the effect of civilian accomplishments. The estimates find that Marines, Naval Aviators, and Trident Scholars are more likely to be dissatisfied than satisfied. Military tenure yields a tradeoff between wages and satisfaction.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 1990.
Thesis Advisor(s): Milch, Paul R. Second Reader: Suchan, James E. "December 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 01, 2010. DTIC Descriptor(s): Computer programs, decision making, impact, information systems, models, theory, rates, theses, reduction, manpower, strength(general), inventory, flow, surgery, promotion(advancement), Markov processes, policies DTIC Identifier(s): Manpower, computerized simulation, military medicine, navy, medical service corps, force model, Markov chain theory, BUMIS (burean of medicine and surgery information system), theses, forecasting. Author(s) subject terms: Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-124). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010.
Thesis Advisor(s): Johnson, Rachel ; Second Reader: Shearer, Robert. "June 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 14, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Simulation, Manpower, Enlistment, End Strength, Design of Experiments, United States Army Reserve, USAR, Delayed Training Program, DTP, Delayed Entry Program, DEP. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38). Also available in print.

This study investigated the current practices of strategic human resources planning (SHRP) at large industrial and service companies in the United States and compared these practices with Walker's Four Stages of Human Resources planning model. The data for this study were collected from 130 industrial companies and 117 service companies listed in Fortune directories of the largest 500 industrial and largest 500 service companies in the United States. The study investigated also the impact of internal and external environmental factors on these companies' practices of SHRP. MANOVA, Factor Analysis, and Percentile Analysis were used as prime statistical methods in this study. Environmental factors studied were found to explain 78 per cent of the variances among large American companies. No significant difference was found between industrial and service companies in their SHRP practices. Significant improvements have taken place in large United States business corporations' practices of SHRP since the introduction of Walker's model (1974). These improvements took place in human resources information systems, forecasting human resource needs, human resource planning and development, and evaluation of SHRP projects, but the improvements were unbalanced. The improvements in corporate-centered SHRP activities were greater than the improvements in employee-centered SHRP activities. The reasons for unbalanced developments were explained and future directions were predicted. The findings of this study were compared to the findings of many recent studies in SHRP fields and future directions of the developments of SHRP were discussed. The conclusions of this study suggested that United States corporations are in need of balanced development in both employee-centered and corporate-centered SHRP. American companies are in need of advanced models to shape their practice in SHRP fields. Walker's model has been evaluated as the best available model. The study showed that mediumsized companies in the United States will benefit from SHRP and that they are able to pay the cost of SHRP projects. Several implications and recommendations for future studies and for business and educational institutions are listed.

This study addressed the current status of early childhood curriculum design and implementation in the Texas Education Service Centers Seven and Eight. No Previous research about the characteristics of the preschool programs had been completed in those areas. This research established if preschool programs were receiving priority status in East Texas. The results yielded evidence regarding the characteristics of administrators, teachers, curriculum implementation, plus parent and community involvement. The information also provided insight regarding short-term and longitudinal effects on children who have attended preschool programs. Data were collected from a search of educational literature, regional service preschool directors, administrators, and teachers. The procedure used in designing the survey and interview documents was Michael Scriven's goal-free strategy. The main sources for the questions were the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Head Start. The study first directs attention to the common characteristics of national programs/standards, then discusses the level of implementation in local rural prekindergartens. The fifteen open-ended interviews yielded concise information relevant to the population of students served and administrative beliefs on current practices. Surveys were sent to a total of all preschool administrators in the Education Service Center Regions of Seven and Eight. A 51 percent response rate was received. The results of the analysis demonstrated the direction current administrators hope early childhood will take in the areas of 1) developmentally-centered curriculum, 2) parental and community input, and 3) professional development. The administrators' commitments and focal points were correlated with the national standards. Recommendations are made that should result in an overall increase of successful prekindergarten and high school graduates.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Conventional interpretations of WWII hold that the war brought the United States out of the Great Depression and laid the path for future economic prosperity. However, this was not the case for all businesses and industries. During WWII, unprecedented production output was required of U.S. industries to supply the great “Arsenal of Democracy.” Industrial mobilization required the creation of new agencies and commissions to manage the nation’s resources. These organizations created policies that deeply impacted U.S. industries involved in war production. Policies governing such areas as the allocation of raw materials, transportation of finished goods, and distribution of war contracts created challenges for businesses that often resulted in lost productivity and in some cases, loss of profitability. Government regulation of the labor force and labor problems such as labor shortages, high absenteeism and turnover rates, and labor disputes presented further challenges for businesses navigating the wartime economy. Most studies of WWII industrial mobilization have focused on large corporations in high priority industries, such as the aircraft, petroleum, or steel industries, which achieved great success during the war. This thesis presents a case study of The Real Silk Hosiery Mills of Indianapolis, Indiana, a company that is representative of small and mid-sized companies that produced lower priority goods. The study demonstrates that the policies created by the military and civilian wartime agencies favored large corporations and had a negative affect on some businesses like Real Silk. As such,the economic boost associated with the war did not occur across the board.

The United States has been one of the most active countries in the deployment of municipal broadband networks. In America, many remote areas have no Internet access or are served by a single provider that might not meet local needs. Increasingly, access to the Internet is vital for social and economic development as well as prosperity. Without access, rural areas lose economic competitiveness and have lower quality of life standard of living. An attractive solution for such localities is to provide Internet access themselves, provided they believe that their area will realize significant benefits from it. However, the States’ complex legal frameworks are a significant barrier to local network success. Each state makes its own laws governing its municipalities, and states have almost unfettered ability to constrain, either by ban or by lesser restraint, the emergence of local networks. These states are further influenced by the lobbying of incumbent service providers. Moreover, judicial remedies can be used strategically by incumbents to hinder, delay, or prevent local networks from succeeding. Despite all this, local networks can be and have been successful. This chapter discusses various legal and political barriers to municipal networks and explores case studies with the goal of learning from past successes and failures.

In the previous chapter, we outlined a number of methods employed by geographers to study time–space patterns of disease incidence and spread. In this and the next four chapters we use these methods to explore five linked themes in the epidemiological history of war since 1850. We begin here with Theme 1, military mobilization, taking the United States as our geographical reference point. Military mobilization at the outset of wars has always been a fertile breeding ground for epidemics. The rapid concentration of large—occasionally vast—numbers of unseasoned recruits, usually under conditions of great urgency, sometimes in the absence of adequate logisitic arrangements, and often without sufficient accommodation, supplies, equipage, and medical support, entails a disease risk that has been repeated down the years. The epidemiological dangers are multiplied by the crowding together of recruits from different disease environments (including rural rather than urban settings) while, even in relatively recent conflicts, pressures to meet draft quotas have sometimes demanded the enlistment of weak, physically unfit, and sometimes disease-prone applicants. The testimony of Major Samuel D. Hubbard, surgeon to the Ninth New York Volunteer Infantry, US Army, during the Spanish–American War (1898) is illustrative: . . . I examined all the recruits for this regiment . . . Practically all the men belonged to one class . . . They were whisky-soaked, homeless wanderers, the majority of whom gave Bowery lodging houses as their places of residence . . . Certainly the regiment was composed of a class of men likely to be susceptible to disease . . . The regiment was hastily recruited, and while the greatest care was used to get the best, the best had to be selected from the worst. (Hubbard, cited in Reed et al., 1904, i. 223) . . . But the problem of mobilization and disease is not restricted to new recruits. As part of the broader pattern of heightened population mixing, regular service personnel may also be swept into the disease milieu while, occasionally, infections may escape the confines of hastily established assembly and training camps to diffuse widely in civil populations.

The focus of this chapter will be to discuss the treatment of child sexual abuse in a rural setting. Children in rural communities who have experienced such traumas are entitled to the same access and quality of services available in urban centres. Although the rates of trauma are similar in urban and rural settings, rural centres often lack adequate mental health services for children and families. According to Jones and colleagues (2014), each year in the United States approximately 22% of children between the ages of two and seventeen experience trauma. As we know, the impacts of trauma on the developing brain are significant, as are the negative outcomes on affective, behavioral and cognitive functioning (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006). Mental health service providers face unique challenges in terms of practicing in rural or remote communities. Multiple barriers exist to practice in these communities, including lack of resources, lack of specialist knowledge, and the training and supervision of professionals, to name a few.

The Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center (RCPNC) was created through grant funding from the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service and designed to address childhood food insecurity in persistently poor, rural counties in the United States. The RCPNC selected various community projects that focused on child nutrition assistance programs. Administration and technical assistance from the RCPNC allowed for improvements to child nutrition programs for the sub-grantees through the grant beginning with community needs assessments and programming meeting their individual needs. Evaluation found that the RCPNC was successful in assisting the sub-grantees reach their unique goals, which improve the initial outcomes as desired by the grant. Additionally, despite the unique communities the sub-grantees served, there were commonalities that linked all of the communities. This chapter describes the process with which the RCPNC sought unique communities with creative projects and explains the ways in which others can improve child nutrition outcomes.

Chapter 1 follows the enterprising activities of Vere Foster, a member of the Anglo-Irish gentry who funded the emigration of approximately 1,250 Irish women from post-famine Ireland during the 1850s. Foster’s efforts serve as a case study that illuminates the ideologies of white settlerism and Anglophone imperial unity, and shows how they worked together in concert. Foster was convinced that the best way to govern rural Ireland’s surplus population and inadequate lands was to finance and coordinate the integration of young migrant women into wage labor positions as servants in the United States, in areas of the country where the supply of white female workers was scarce. In order to assuage concerns about the moral and sexual dangers that free markets and migration posed to young Irish women, Foster endeavored to establish transatlantic networks of migration rooted in what he presented as racial and familial values of protection and mutuality. As this chapter concludes, the Irish migrants Foster sponsored developed different interpretations of what it meant to work for wages in household service, and what the commodification of their labor signified to both Ireland and the United States.

Government initiatives in the United States have been passed in an effort to increase citizen usage of e-government programs. One such service is the availability of online health insurance information. However, not all demographic groups have been equally able to access these services, primarily the poor and rural American. As more legislation is passed, including the advancement of broadband services to remote areas, infrastructure barriers are being removed, opening access to Medicare and Medicaid websites for these vulnerable groups. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze factors predicting the impact of recent government actions on citizen access to health insurance information online. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the Internet and American Life Project. The findings suggest that healthcare needs and quality of Internet access may be playing a more important role in health insurance information services than other factors.

Government initiatives in the United States have been passed in an effort to increase citizen usage of e-government programs. One such service is the availability of online health insurance information. However, not all demographic groups have been equally able to access these services, primarily the poor and rural American. As more legislation is passed, including the advancement of broadband services to remote areas, infrastructure barriers are being removed, opening access to Medicare and Medicaid websites for these vulnerable groups. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze factors predicting the impact of recent government actions on citizen access to health insurance information online. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the Internet and American Life Project. The findings suggest that healthcare needs and quality of Internet access may be playing a more important role in health insurance information services than other factors.

Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of a landmark event in American agricultural and conservation history, and few seem to be aware of the fact. In April 1935, Congress passed the Soil Erosion Act, the first effort in the United States to establish a nationwide, comprehensive program to preserve the very earth on which farming and rural life depend. That act committed the nation to a permanent program of research and action to stop “the wastage of soil and moisture resources on farm, grazing, and forest lands.” Describing erosion as “a menace to the national welfare,” it promised action on private as well as public lands, even to the point of condemning and purchasing private properties when inducements to good practices proved ineffective. And the act established within the Department of Agriculture a new agency, the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), to carry out the work. Now, after fifty years, it is appropriate to ask what cultural forces produced this 1935 commitment and to speculate about what our attitude, our commitment, is today. What have we as a people done with our soil since the act was passed? What have we learned about preserving the soil and what have we forgotten? The South, soil-conscious and erosion-plagued beyond other regions, played an extraordinary role in preparing the way for the 1935 act. It furnished both lessons in consequences and leaders for reform. From an earlier period, a succession of southern leaders had warned of the dangers of soil depletion and erosion. Thomas Jefferson, for example, wrote in 1819 of a land carelessness that, if not ended, would force planters to abandon their Virginia fields and “run away to Alibama (sic), as so many of our countrymen are doing, who find it easier to resolve on quitting their country, than to change the practices in husbandry to which they have been brought up.” After him, men like Edmund Ruffin preached the gospel of lime, of “calcareous manure,” up and down the land, earnestly calling for stability, conservation, and a permanent agriculture for the region.

Information technology is one of the fastest growing service export industries in the world. According to information collected by LIAA (Information and Communications ..., 2018), in 2017, 40 % of Latvian information technology companies exported to the Baltic States. In 2017, the United States (further – US) was the ninth largest export partner and the 18 th largest import partner of Latvia. The US is the world’s largest software and information technology services provider, accounting for ¾ of the total global IT market. Latvian information technology companies have an interest in an information technology service exports to the US; however, currently IT companies mostly choose not to conduct market research and export strategy development. Consequently, it is necessary to evaluate the export potential of Latvian information technology services and to determine the export promotion activities of Latvian information technology services to the US. So far, there are no analysis of the Latvian IT export promotion to US that would be based on company’s needs, experience and resources available. The results of the research concluded that the export tendencies of IT services are upward and the export balance of Latvian IT services with the US is positive.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.

The creation and subsequent access to accurate information is widely accepted as a vital component of a national radioactive waste management strategy. Information on the origin and quantity of the waste together with its physical, chemical and radiological characteristics provides a catalyst for sound and transparent decision making. This information will originate from a number of potentially disparate sources, including material manufacturers, facility operators, waste producers, Government and Non-Government organisations and regulators. The challenge to those with a role in information management in further increased by the fact that much of the information created is required to support activities, not only in the immediate future, but also in the longer-term — typically many decades or even centuries. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a number of guidance documents under the Safety Series, one of which makes direct reference to information management. The document [1] is intended to assist Member States in the development of a national system for radioactive waste management and identifies the key responsibilities and essential features of such a system. The following statement appears in Section 5: “The regulatory body, the waste generators and the operators of radioactive waste management facilities should maintain documentation and records consistent with the legal requirements and their own needs.” An essential requirement of these ‘documents and records’ is that they should be “...kept in a condition that will enable them to be consulted and understood later by people different from, and possibly without reference to, those who generated the records ...” The scope of the documentation and records to be kept will be wide ranging but will include “...an inventory of radioactive waste, including origin, location, physical and chemical characteristics, and, as appropriate a record of radioactive waste removed or discharged from a facility”, and “site plans, engineering drawings, specifications and process descriptions ... radioactive waste package identification ...”. It is has long been recognised in the United Kingdom that the management of radioactive waste will require the assembly and secure retention of a diversity of records and data. This information will be needed to inform the strategic decision making process, thus contributing to the future safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable management of radioactive waste. In the meantime it will also service the nation’s international commitments. When the planning application for a Rock Characterisation Facility (RCF) was refused and the subsequent Nirex appeal rejected in 1997, it was recognised that transfer of waste to a national repository was ulikely to take place for many decades. The long-term preservation of information by the waste management organisations thus became an issue. Since this time, the UK nuclear industry, including the waste producers, regulators and other Government Departments have worked together to develop a common information management system that is now being implemented. It is based on an Oracle database and is supported by ‘electronic tools’ designed to facilitate entry and retrieval of data in a common format. Long-term access to these data underpins many aspects of the system design. Designing such a system and seeing through its development has been a challenge for all those involved. However, as the project nears the completion of the development phase, it is clear there are several benefits in this approach. These include a sharing of best practice, shared development costs, an improved understanding of the needs of all parties, and the use of a common platform and tools. The ‘partnership approach’ between waste management organisations, Government departments and regulators will also reduce the likelihood of future surprises or conflicts of interest. Industry-wide co-operation also provides a greater degree of confidence that the system will continue to enjoy technical and financial support for the foreseeable future. The British Radwaste Information Management System (BRIMS) is supported by the principal waste producers, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) and United Kingdom Nirex Limited (Nirex). All organisations that have participated in its development over the past seven years have free access to it and may use it as part of their waste management strategy.