ECU’s Model United Nations Club competed in their first national competition in Washington DC serving as delegates from Poland. Students Mariama Abubakri, Haley Creef (MUN Club President), Dylan Fulp, Zachary Hollopeter, Andrew McLeer (MUN Club Vice President), Gabriela Morales, Aji Njie, Kaitlyn Rose, Sorrell Saunders, and Braxton Smallwood engaged in debate and competition with over 60 other universities, including delegations from Nigeria, Italy, Japan, China, and France, representing a total of 87 countries. ECU MUN students earned a conference-wide delegation award after three days of tackling diverse and complex global problems ranging from the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons to improving housing and food security for urban refugees.

Casey Fleming is presenting current research at the annual Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action later this month in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Using survey experiments, this project investigates the effects of nonprofits’ engagement in specific activities on potential donors’ willingness to volunteer or contribute financially. These activities include highly commercial “business-like” revenue strategies (in contrast to traditional, highly donative approaches) and advocacy-based missions (rather than direct service traditionally associated with charities). This work tests competing theories, including “crowding out”—which suggests donors reward nonprofits they view as more entrepreneurial or sustainable—and “crowding in”—which holds that donors give to nonprofits perceived to “need it more.” Findings provide insight into how nonprofit leaders can more effectively communicate their activities and missions in their appeals for support.

Dr. Giurcanu participated in the last SAPOR conference, which is the southern chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), in Raleigh, NC (Oct 5-6, 2017), where she delivered a paper titled:”Europe under Duress: Assessing Uncertainty in Vote Choice in European Parliament Elections as an Entropy Measure”.

Her “paper examines voting behavior in the 2009 European Parliament elections in 27 member states of the European Union. The project joins the debate of when and how do attitudes towards the European integration affect vote choice from a methodological perspective by introducing an entropy measure of voters’ uncertainty when evaluating party positions on EU integration and the left-right ideological dimensions. The project shows that parties display larger uncertainties on the EU dimension than on the LR dimension. Furthermore, there is a significant regional difference within the EU: parties in the post-communist countries (East) display larger uncertainties on both dimensions compared to parties in the western countries (West). However, a party’s ambiguous position is not necessarily detrimental to the party since our analyses show that voters prefer clear position on the left-right dimension in both East and Western states, but do not punish parties that are vague on the European integration dimension in the Western states only. The paper points to the importance of bringing back discussions of parties’ vague messages when utilizing spatial models across heterogeneous contexts.”

Ten East Carolina University students are participating in the National Model United Nations competition in Washington, D.C. this Nov. 3-5. ECU’s Model UN Club attended two conferences last year in Atlanta and Charlotte, where the group won delegation awards, sparking their interest in attending this year’s national competition.

ECU’s team of eight undergraduate and two graduate students from the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences will represent the country of Poland. Two students are assigned to one of five committees, where they debate issues amongst other teams representing various countries. The overall goal is to create feasible solutions to real-world issues.

To read more, visit the full United Nations competition article.

On Tues., Oct. 24, Dr. Jody Baumgartner moderated a candidate forum at the Cypress Glen Retirement Community. Sponsored by the Cypress Glen Retirement Community, The Tar River University Neighborhood Association and the College Court/Coghill Neighborhood Association, the forum featured Mayoral (Calvin Mercer, P.J. Connelly, Ernest Reaves), District 3 (Uriah Ward, Will Bell), and At-Large (Chris Nunnally, Brian Meyerhoeffer) City Council candidates.

Ably assisting Dr. Baumgartner were five political science students: Koby Butt, Ashley Cromie, Matthew Miller, Christopher Queen and James Simmons. Thanks to all of you!

Hugh Lee recenlty published an article titled, “The Present and Future Prospects for Long-Term Care Insurance – Will the Long-Term Care Insurance Market Rebound or Rebuild Around New Products to Finance Long-Term Care?” 319 Elder Law Advisory 1 (Thomson-West October 2017).

Great Job Hugh!

Terrorist Organizations and Weapons of Mass Destruction: U.S. Threats, Responses, and Policies, by Alethia H. Cook

(Available 13 October 2017)

Weapons of Mass Destruction are diverse and pose unique challenges to governments attempting to keep them out of the wrong hands and preparing to respond to an attack. This text analyzes Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons and terrorist groups with a known interest in them. It presents accessible information about the technical challenges posed by each type of weapon, assesses the threats, and reviews the US governmental responses. It provides structured CBRN case studies and allows for easy comparison of threats, challenges, and responses. The text combines weapons and policy information in one comprehensive and comparative resource for researchers and students interested in key issues in modern terrorism and international security.

Dr. Olga Smirnova, with Tom Holt, have an article forthcoming in the American Behavioral Scientist. The article is titled “Examining the Geographic Distribution of Victim Nations in Stolen Data Markets.”

“The growth of electronic commerce and malicious software tools designed to compromise various payment systems and computer networks has led to concurrent increase in data breaches, phishing and hacking incidents targeting sensitive financial information. As a function of this increase, an underground market economy has developed around the sale of consumers’ bank account details and other financial information. Recent research examining data markets operating on the Open web demonstrate their basic functions and distribution of information sold. Emerging evidence suggests markets are now operating on the “Dark web” or encrypted web sites operating on Tor based networks. Little research to-date has compared the distribution of victim nations in stolen data markets, nor examined any variations between Open and dark web operations. This study utilizes a rational choice framework to examine this gap using a sample of 18 forums and 15 shops hosted on the Open-web and Tor. Using statistical analyses to examining the geography of victimization, this study provides a preliminary test of the applicability of rational choice theory to market operations.”

On September 11, 2017, Dr. Bonnie Mani traveled to Virginia Commonwealth University to give a presentation to their Ph.D. students. The title of her presentation was “Barriers and Facilitators to Successful Academic Careers: An Owner’s Manual.” In addition, because she completed her degree at VCU (in 1987), she met with Dean John J. Accordino of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs to discuss her subsequent academic career and experiences.