Indiana is a state built on fossil fuels. This statement is supported by the presence of fifteen coal-fired plants found throughout the state. While these power plants are essential to provide energy for major population centers throughout the state, they are also major polluters, emitting millions of pounds of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and… Read more »
Research
Variables Affecting Cover Crop Acreage in Indiana
What motivates farmers to adopt more sustainable practices in Indiana? Indiana is a very agriculturally focused state with large-scale industrial farming operations contributing largely to our state’s economy, as well as our state’s carbon emissions and pollution. What is it going to take to motivate these industrial farmers to change their routine that has been… Read more »
Speaking through security or health? Examining the effects of framing climate change
Since 2003, social psychologists have agreed that in the United States, political party identification is one of the chief determinants for levels of policy support and concern for certain issues. The intimate tie between political identity and climate attitudes, motivations, and beliefs in the U.S. has only tightened over the past 15 years. Studies still… Read more »
Covid-19 Can Kill Workplace Productivity: Keeping the Employee the Priority
Although the Covid vaccines, and now booster shots, are making it to homes around the world, 83 percent of respondents from a Mercer study of over 800 employers said that even after the health crisis has passed, they plan to put more flexible work policies in place. With little research on what working from home… Read more »
Political campaigns are getting nastier, and it is hurting our democracy
The effects of political polarization are felt at a national level every time news of a new riot makes it into mainstream media coverage. Taylor Longhitano sought to discover whether polarization is being fueled in state politics as well by studying campaign ads for gubernatorial elections in Illinois. Findings show that not only are campaigns… Read more »
Identifying Environmental Racism in Indiana Counties Using Demographic, Air Quality, and Per Capita Income Data
Robert Bullard coined the term environmental racism as a concept that “refers to any policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intended or unintended) individuals, groups, or communities based on race or color.” In the United States, environmental racism is widely prevalent with “71% of African Americans liv[ing] in counties in violation… Read more »
Broadband: The Connection Within Educational Success Gaps
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, problems with online resources are no longer foreign concepts for anyone in the United States. Currently, twenty-three percent of Americans still do not have access to at home internet. This need for the expansion of internet access across states is now becoming fully recognized by legislatures across the country, seeking… Read more »
Mental Health in the City: A Divergent Approach to Analyzing Municipal Policies
Changes in Access to Urban Mental Healthcare Access to affordable substance abuse treatment has become an increasingly relevant policy issue in large American cities. Annual drug-induced deaths in the United States has more than doubled in the past decade, with the majority of these cases being concentrated in the country’s urban centers. As… Read more »
Hospitals Do Not Reduce the Dollar Amount of Uncompensated Care They Provide Upon Joining Health Systems
Every year, hundreds of diabetic patients in the United States die because they were not able to afford their daily shots of life-sustaining insulin and chose to, out of sheer desperation, ration their insulin prescription so that it lasted for as many days as they could stretch it. For such individuals, uncompensated care that hospitals… Read more »
Filling Roles, Building Skills, and Adjusting Education to Meet Private Sector Needs
Growing demand for skilled labor and supply of skilled labor are trending in different directions, leaving companies with openings for skilled labor and individuals unemployed and underemployed. Career training offers a solution to fill this skills gap and provide both companies with skilled labor and individuals a pathway to sustainable wages. Sophia Downey’s research highlights… Read more »