Month: October 2022

Early registration – for special categories – begins Friday, Nov. 4.

When you register depends on the number of credit hours completed PRIOR to this semester: The number of COMPLETED HOURS, as of SEPTEMBER, 2022.

One can find this number this by checking DegreeWorks. The number is the “overall credits,” listed below your minor (in the right hand column, at the top). Do NOT use the “credits applied” – this number includes the classes one is currently enrolled in.

YOU SHOULD familiarize themselves with your DegreeWorks audit record. This PDF document might be helpful: https://bit.ly/3T8Rw9e

Dr. Hanna Kassab is leading a study abroad from May 30 to June 19, 2023. The “Peace & Conflict on the French-German Border” study abroad program in Strasbourg, France is designed for students pursuing degrees in Political Science, History, International and Global Studies as well as those studying French, German, and literature. Students will learn about and visit historical and modern locations that tie into Europe’s troubled past, as well as governmental institutions such as the European Parliament.

Students will earn 6 credits in 3 weeks while exploring Europe. We will study Europe as the Brexit continues to unfold, along with the ongoing refugee crisis caused by the Syrian War and economic woes in North Africa. The program will be enhanced by excursions and visits. Among the enrichment activities, the program plans to visit Heidelberg and the Heidelberg Castle in Germany; the quaint historic town of Colmar with its half-timbered houses, called “Little Venice” for its location on the beautiful Lauch River canals and the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. Such historical sites do not exist in the United States and cannot be replicated here.

For cost and other information, please visit: https://bit.ly/3gEMmDp

‘Nuff said!

Dr. Kassab recently published a new book, with Jonathan Rosen, titled The Illegal Drug Trade and Global Security (Palgrave MacMillan).

The book explores global drug trafficking networks’ impact on international security and provides an in-depth analysis of drug trafficking networks globally by integrating international relations and security studies theories. The book acts as a primer, simplifying the complicated world of narcotics and insecurity, while also providing policy recommendations for policymakers hoping to reduce the power of organized criminal and terrorist networks globally. It will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduates taking courses in International Relations, Global Politics, Defense Studies, Security Studies, and International Political Economy, as well as Criminal Justice, Sociology, and other social science disciplines that cover issues related to drug trafficking, organized crime, and violence.

See it on Amazon

Dr. Xu’s coauthored paper with Ljubinka Andonoska, titled “The Effect of Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELs) on State Pension and Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Funding: An Longitudinal Analysis of the U.S. States” was presented at the recent Association of Budgeting and Financial Management annual conference in Miami, FL.

The paper uses the panel data from 2006-2019 and applies two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) dynamic models to empirically examine one of the key fiscal institution – tax and expenditure limits (TELs), and how it is related to the funding of pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB).

The data analysis finds that the stringency of TELs is positively related to funding ratio of state pension and OPEB after controlling for financial condition of state government and political factors. The effect of financial condition, measured through proxies including fund balance, revenue from intergovernmental transfer, debt and tax burden, seems to be very limited. Political factors measured as governor’s partisanship have a positively effect on pension funding but negative effect when it interacts with TELs. Unionization of public employees, which represents another political factor, seems not to be a significant factor.

On Wednesday October 19, 2022 from 4-5 PM in MCSC 307, Greenville Mayor PJ Connelly will be speaking at Citizen U on the topic of Local Government & City Services.

More details about the session can be found here: https://engage.ecu.edu/event/8146434

Good idea to have a look at your Degree Works audit (see this file for help). More coming soon!

(They’re not that easy to find!)

“Giving comfort to grammar errants [BTW, this may not be a word…] everywhere, the official copy of the Constitution contains an incorrect word—Article 1, Section 10 uses “it’s” when it should be “its,” even in 18th-century usage. However, the word “chuse” as used in the Constitution was acceptable at the time. So was the alternative spelling of Pennsylvania, Pensylvania; the Constitution actually uses both spellings.”

From: https://www.brainscape.com/academy/13-us-constitution-facts/

Dr. Baumgartner’s article, “Public Support for Vice Presidential Reform,” was recently published online in Presidential Studies Quarterly.

The study “analysis explores public support for reforming both the selection of vice presidents and the institution itself. Survey data shows some evidence that those who favorably view the concepts of political moderation and bipartisanship support vice presidential reform, while partisans and ideologues (broadly defined) seem to oppose it. In addition, there is a negative association between job approval ratings for Vice President Mike Pence and support for vice presidential reform. The only demographic factor that was significant in the analysis was gender, with females more likely than males to support reform.”

See: http://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12808