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1. The Dynamic Financial Implications of the Community College Baccalaureate: An Institutional Exploration

   https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221126473  

   Wright-Kim, Jeremy (January 2022, AERA Open)

   Using generalized difference-in-difference and synthetic control modeling, this study estimates the influence of the community-college baccalaureate (CCB) on institutional finance over time and by intensity. Leveraging data spanning 19 years (1999–2017), I find no impact on overall revenue but suggestive evidence of upfront costs and slight increases in total spending post-adoption. Coupled with increased enrollment, per-full-time-equivalent (FTE) revenue and spending decrease, on average, by approximately 12% and 6%, respectively. Adoption of an additional CCB is associated with a 3% decrease in revenue and a suggestive 2% reduction in spending per FTE. Additional robustness checks suggest that these impacts may vary by state. These results suggest that institutions should consider the trade-offs in broadening access to baccalaureate-level education with the associated strain on resources. Policymakers should consider how best to financially support adoptive institutions as they work to meet student and workforce needs. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed. 

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2. Adaptations of Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1029-6_13  

   Pinto, Ana D.; Choi, Juyeong; Abichou, Tarek; Sanusi, Fehintola; Aninat, Emilia (January 2022, Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering Annual Conference 2021)

   The coronavirus pandemic has challenged the operation of municipal solid waste management systems (MSWMSs) in the United States and elsewhere. With the growing concern about the potential exposure to the coronavirus, people are spending more time in their homes while changing their waste generation behaviors. This phenomenon has changed not only how people produce waste but also how MSWMSs plan and adapt the operation of their facilities. Since solid waste management has been declared as an essential service in addition to public health, MSWMSs have faced new challenges and thus developed adaptive measures in order to keep their critical operations. This study (i) identifies a broad range of waste management and operational challenges and (ii) summarizes various adaptive measures taken by different MSWMSs. Ephemeral data were collected and analyzed on the longitudinal impact of the pandemic on multiple MSWMSs in severely affected U.S. states, such as Florida, California, and New York, over a nine-month period. Note that best management practices for such waste-related challenges and adaptive measures can vary across different MSWMSs and states. In order to facilitate the development of different MSWMSs’ plan for future pandemic events, this study will characterize the identified impact of the pandemic and its relevant adaptive measures in terms of system structure (i.e., what facilities exist [entity], how they interact with one another [interdependency], and who control which facilities [control]). 

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3. Laundering Militarization: Preparedness, Professionalism, and Police Common Sense

   https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2023.a913522  

   Katzenstein, Jessica (December 2023, American Quarterly)

   US police militarization is commonly understood as military violence abroad flowing to domestic policing, where it does not belong. Despite years of reform efforts, attempts to demilitarize local police have thus far failed to effect substantive change. This essay builds on the history of US policing, as well as sixteen months of ethnographic research with police in Maryland, to suggest that the ideological labor of policing contributes to these failures. Specifically, I examine two elements of what I call police common sense: preparedness as moral practice and violence as professional technique. In so doing, I demonstrate how policing metabolizes militarization as an apolitical technical craft that counterintuitively reduces violence, and that allows officers to fulfill their primary ethical role as stewards of public crises. Demilitarization reforms function in tandem with the political work of preparedness and professionalism to consecrate “good” militarization as commonsensical and legitimate. These reforms thus inadvertently lend power to the notion of police as the “thin blue line” between extreme violence and innocent (white) society. 

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4. The effect of job loss on risky financial decision-making

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2412760121  

   Hirshman, Samuel D; Sussman, Abigail B; Vazquez-Hernandez, Carlos; O’Leary, Daniel; Trueblood, Jennifer S (January 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Job loss is a common and disruptive life event. It is known to have numerous long-term negative effects on financial, health, and social outcomes. While the negative effects of becoming unemployed on health and well-being are well understood, the influence of job loss on financial decisions has received little attention. Across a large-scale survey ( $N=37,854$), spending data from a bank ( $N=404,470$), and two online experiments (total $N=1,403$), we find that job loss increases financial risk-taking. First, in survey data, job loss is associated with elevated levels of self-reported financial risk-taking and lottery ticket purchases. Next, using administrative data from a large bank, we find consistent causal evidence of the influence of job loss on gambling spending. Although total spending decreases after job loss, gambling spending is less affected than our control categories. Finally, we turn to two incentive-compatible manipulations of job loss operationalized in a lab setting. We find that this experimental manipulation increases the take-up of financial risks. The current finding that job loss increases financial risk-taking could accentuate long-term negative financial effects of job loss. 

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5. What Can Frogs Teach Us about Resilience? Adaptive Renewal in Amphibian and Academic Ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icae058  

   Byrne, Allison_Q (May 2024, Integrative And Comparative Biology)

   Synopsis Examples of resilience in nature give us hope amid a growing biodiversity crisis. While resilience has many definitions across disciplines, here I discuss resilience as the ability to continue to adapt and persist. Naturally, as biologists, we seek to uncover the underlying mechanisms that can help us explain the secrets of resilience across scales, from individuals to species to ecosystems and beyond. Perhaps we also ponder what the secrets to resilience are in our own lives, in our own research practices, and academic communities. In this paper, I highlight insights gained through studies of amphibian resilience following a global disease outbreak to uncover shared patterns and processes linked to resilience across amphibian communities. I also reflect on how classical resilience heuristics could be more broadly applied to these processes and to our own academic communities. Focusing on the amphibian systems that I have worked in—the Golden Frogs of Panama (Atelopus zeteki/varius) and the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs of California (Rana muscosa/sierrae)—I highlight shared and unique characteristics of resilience across scales and systems and discuss how these relate to adaptive renewal cycles. Reflecting on this work and previous resilience scholarship, I also offer my own thoughts about academia and consider what lessons we could take from mapping our own adaptive trajectories and addressing threats to our own community resilience. 

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