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Student success and campus safety are two key issues in higher education. Efforts to maximize both issues are the focus of campus administration. Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs) are implemented as a dual mechanism to improve student success and campus safety. BITs increasingly are becoming best practice and an essential component in increasing efforts toward accomplishing both objectives. Research is lacking in the arena of community colleges regarding the effectiveness of BITs. This qualitative study explored the influences on BIT function at community colleges in the Midwest region of the United States. Seventeen BIT members participated in the study, participating in semi-structured interviews regarding their work on BIT teams and their perceptions of the effectiveness in regard to student success and campus safety. The results of the thematic analysis in this study provided support that influences like multitasking, perception of team support, team member concerns and the need for more mental health resources for students play a role in how BITs function at community colleges in this region. The practical implications offered in this study clarified how influences on team function could provide an understanding to improve the work and support for this important and specialized sector of community college student service delivery. Future research is recommended to study the role of BITs in retaining students, improving general mental health of students, and decreasing tension on campus. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This research paper addresses the information needs of Kent State University's (Ohio) Master's of Business Administration (MBA) students. Data was collected from the students using a focused information needs questionnaire, and then summarized. The results were analyzed to determine which tools were being used by MBA students when they research business related topics. Findings show that these students use the library at Kent State University more than other libraries. Despite numerous resources available to be used specifically for business related research, the MBA students primarily used current periodicals and ABI/Inform. The students were familiar with using the Internet as well as computers in general. The students noted that formal research training about business resources would be highly useful. The most prominent finding was related to the fact that the students take their professors' advice in regards to accessing business research tools and apparently few academics are aware of the wide variety of applicable technologies in the Kent State University library and business-specific reference books. Therefore, these resources are not being recommended to students. Because of this general lack of awareness about business related research tools available in the Kent State library, both MBA students and professors could benefit from graduate level bibliographic instruction. Eight tables show responses to the survey. The cover letter and a sample questionnaire are appended. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/AEF)

This is an explanatory study to investigate the effectiveness of addressing life-style addiction to prevent adolescent criminal activity and concomitant recidivism. This research tested whether youth, who are incarcerated in a county correctional facility and participating in a program designed to address lifestyle addiction, will show more positive outcome and less recidivism than similar participants before implementation of the intervention. The phenomenon under study is the effect of the Peer Recovery Model (PRM). The study outcomes are recidivism and improvements in living situation. The measures are reports from the jail and scores on the Pro-Social Lifestyle (PSL) Scale. The proximal goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention. The distal goal is to develop an increased ability to prevent recidivism in other, similar groups and to build support for wider use of the PRM. The intervention rationale is based upon a concept of non-substance addiction which includes risky, criminal behavior. It is theorized a treatment modality with proven success with other addictions should also prove effective with this population. If the application of the PRM process does prevent recidivism, it will lend support to the theory. Three sample groups, (Life Skills Only (LSO), partial PRM (PRM-1) and full PRM (PRM-2)), received a different level of intervention. The hypotheses that the PRM will result in a reduction in recidivism were supported. These results persisted in the partial PRM-1 and the full PRM-2 groups, although factors in these two groups such as numbers of prior arrests, age and inner city residence, would have predicted a greater risk of recidivism than the LSO group. The hypotheses concerning improved lifestyle were not supported. Higher scores on the PSL positively associated with lower recidivism although not with the PRM as evidenced by group membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a large number of non-democratic countries, the power of the government rests upon the effective organization of a ruling party. Today, China stands out as a successful party-based authoritarian regime. In contrast to conventional approaches, which emphasize the role of authoritarian parties in controlling elite conflict and electoral-legislative processes, this dissertation demonstrates that the party makes the regime strong at the local level. Thanks to the party, the Chinese government has a strong grip of local societies across its large realm. Since China has ``crimson areas'', where the party is more present, and ``pink areas'', where the party is less present, the Chinese case is ideally suited for a subnational comparative analysis of party-based authoritarianism. Subnational analysis, with its strong focus on geography, demonstrates that the party is doing much more than distributing patronage, and that as a result the state is most resilient, best at extracting taxes, and most effective at implementing policy in places with high party saturation. Historical analysis identifies contingencies of pre-1949 warfare, especially the anti-colonial struggle against Japanese occupation, as a crucial determinant for contemporary geographic patterns of party strength. The historical part of the dissertation also points to the governance techniques of differentiated governance, inherited from the imperial past, which allows China's rulers to live with the uneven reach of the party state and turn it to their advantage, instead of evening it out at all cost. Overall, this dissertation offers a new account of Chinese governance. Conceptualizing the Chinese regime as a party-based authoritarian regime directs our attention to the institutions that allow the government to achieve formidable reach throughout its territory and throughout society., Government