For more than a year, Ukraine has been defending itself from the invading Russian army, and the world has been watching to see what happens next.

The outcome of the war is in doubt, but Bob Kravchuk, a professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a world-renowned expert in Ukrainian-Russian relations, says that Russia needs to be “humiliated” in order to bring the conflict to an end, which could have dire consequences for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the rest of the world.

“Russia has to be humiliated. That’s the only way this is going to end,” Kravchuk said during an appearance on the O’Neill Speaks podcast, the official podcast of the O’Neill School. “And that frightens me. If the Russians get to the point where they believe that their existence is threatened, there’s no telling what they might resort to. If Putin loses in Ukraine, he not only loses his position and probably his life, but (Russia) may very well lose some of the eastern provinces in Siberia, and they won’t have the army they would need to defend it from the Chinese. China is not their friend. Right now, they have a momentary entente. It’s a marriage of convenience, but all bets are off if things go south for the Russians.”

Kravchuck added that selling the survival of Russia via a win in Ukraine is one of the few visions of the future Putin can sell to the Russian people for multiple reasons, and it’s why he initially ordered the invasion.

“Demographically, the Russian population is collapsing,” Kravchuk said. “The average Russian family has 1.4 children, and replacement would be 2.1. So, they’re well below replacement. The adult population of military service age is not as healthy as it could be. Life expectancy among men is still in the low 50s. … Vladimir Putin knew he would never be able to field another army of his size again.”

But beyond the demographic issues in the military and beyond, Russia’s economy is another issue at play. Russia doesn’t have well-diversified industrial base, and the country’s dependance on extractive energy sources in a world that is moving to renewable fuels means Putin can’t promise his people further economic growth.

O’Neill Speaks can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast service.

The Integrated Program for the Environment, which is administered by the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the School of Public Health, and College of Arts and Sciences , recently awarded grants to 15 students ranging from freshman to Ph.D. candidates that will fund research projects focused on the environment and sustainability.

The funds support efforts by IU undergraduate and graduate students to explore the many dimensions of sustainability and to advance environmental research on IU Research and Teaching Preserve properties. Collectively, the awards total nearly $50,000.

“From harmful algal blooms to climate change communication, to global warming’s effect on wildlife, IU students are investigating some of the most pressing environmental challenges we face,” said IPE Director Sarah Mincey. “These projects represent some of the most innovative environmental and sustainability scholarship being pursued on our campus. IPE is proud to help enable our talented student researchers.”

The selected research projects are the result of two IPE programs—the Sustainability Research Development Grants program and the Research and Teaching Preserve Grant program. Both programs are open to undergraduate and graduate students at IU Bloomington.

The grant awardees and their projects include:

Sustainability Research Development Grants

• Malaak Alqaisi, a freshman majoring in biology and environmental science, “Avian window strikes across Bloomington: working to unite the public and optimize solutions”​
• Abigail Blish, a junior majoring in human biology, “Colonialism and the Gut Microbiome: A Deep Dive into the Relationship Within and Between British Colonialism, Pesticide Use, and the Primate Gut Microbiome in Uganda​”
• Lucia Casaraghi, a Ph.D. student in Italian studies with a minor in information science, and Eugene Kim, a Ph.D. student in media arts and sciences, “The Role of Public Mediators in Addressing Climate Change: Investigating the Communicative Actions of Active Publics with Scientific Information with Climate Scientists on Social Media”​
• Thuy Ho, a Ph.D. student in geography, “Governing agrarian transitions in the Mekong Delta: how community-based management works?”
• Isioma Nwayor, a Ph.D. student in geography, “The Development of a Standardized Vapor Pressure Deficit Index and Its Application to Drought Characteristics in Indiana”​
• Nick Polak, a sophomore majoring in environmental science, and Rahul Devajii, a master’s student in data science, “Environmental Sensing for Extreme Heat​”
• Lindsey Rasnake, a Ph.D. student in environmental science, “Harmful algal blooms in the Ohio River: linkages with dissolved silicon and nutrients​”

Research and Teaching Preserve Grants

• Kieran Ball, a junior majoring in environmental and sustainability studies and biology, “Seasonal variation in forest soil fauna communities”
• Emma Boehm, a Ph.D. student in biology, “Role of phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary adaptation in novel environments of a winter annual plant​”
• Kasie Chappell, a Ph.D. student in evolution, ecology, and behavior, “Seasonality based impact on disease dynamics and sex allocation in a facultative sexual host​”
• Caroline Edwards, a Ph.D. student in evolution, ecology, and behavior, “The spatial scale and environmental drivers of local adaptation in Viola pubescens​”
• Bode Hoover, a Ph.D. student in environmental science, “Assessing the contribution of surface emissions to the OH radical budget below forest canopies through seasonal variations and vertical distributions of HONO: measurements and model comparisons”​
• Atalanta Ritter, a Ph.D. student in evolution, ecology, and behavior, “Why are some species thriving in warming environments while others are not? A case study in cavity nesting birds” ​

About the Integrated Program in the Environment

Bringing together faculty, students, and staff across 10 Indiana University schools, the Integrated Program in the Environment is a hub for academics, research, and activities focused on the environment. Administered by the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the School of Public Health, and College of Arts and Sciences, IPE is preparing the next generation of environmental and sustainability leaders. Learn more at environment.indiana.edu.

The Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs honored retiring faculty during a recent ceremony at the Indiana Memorial Union.

Professor Bob Kravchuk, Clinical Associate Professor Mark Levin, Senior Lecturer Mark Norrell, Clinical Associate Professor Shawn Novak, Clinical Associate Professor John Rupp, and Professor Kurt Zorn all were honored during the ceremony.

“Our friends who are moving to the next chapter of their lives have been instrumental in building the foundation of the O’Neill School and maintaining the high standards for which we are known around the world,” said Siân Mooney, dean of the O’Neill School. They have been colleagues, collaborators, and friends, and our school simply will not be the same without them in our halls on a daily basis.”

Each retiring faculty member in attendance was given an opportunity to speak at the event, entertaining the crowd with stories of their careers and the lessons learned along the way. Zorn was the longest-tenured member of the group, having served the O’Neill School for more than 40 years, including a stint as interim dean during the 2007-08 academic year.

“This year’s gathering is especially important to me because it comes as we close out our 50th academic year and celebrate another No. 1 ranking for the O’Neill School in the U.S. News and World Report rankings,” Mooney said. “The success of our school is built on the impact of our graduates, but more importantly, it comes based on the reputation of our faculty, the people who are doing amazing research while also shaping the policy leaders of tomorrow. I look forward to finding out what their next chapter brings for our retirees, and I know we’ll be able to lean on their earned wisdom in the future if needed.”

Replacing traditional combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles is seen as a critical component of transitioning away from a fossil fuel-based economy, but recent proposals for adoption will be difficult if not impossible to reach unless price barriers are lowered for consumers.

During an episode of the O’Neill Speaks podcast, the official podcast of the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Professor John Graham outlined what it will take for consumers to fully embrace EVs and their possibilities.

“The tipping point is when you find an automaker who can offer an electric vehicle to the U.S. market for less than $40,000 and make money,” Graham said. “If we can get to that point, you’re going to see this market change very rapidly. The companies that have offered electric vehicles for less than $40,000 have usually not been able to sell more than 30,000 of them in a year. To make money in the car business, you have to sell at least 100,000 of them, so (the companies) are losing money on them.”

General Motors recently announced it would be discontinuing the Chevrolet Bolt, its most popular electric vehicle and second-best-selling non-Tesla branded EV in the American market, a blow to the dream of low-priced, consumer-friendly vehicles. Meanwhile, EV prices, which had been in decline over the previous decade, actually went up last year due to increases in the cost of raw materials used in the lithium-ion batteries that power the vehicles.

A recent proposal from the Biden Administration set a goal of having 50 percent of all new vehicles sold to be EVs by 2030, but Graham suggests a different option may be more realistic.

“From a policy standpoint, one thing that would be good would be to remove the disincentives for a plug-in hybrid vehicle,” Graham said. “There are a lot of families that can meet their needs with a plug-in hybrid. It’s going to be a decade or two before we can get public charging networks to small towns and rural areas of America, but a plug-in hybrid is a pretty good solution.”

Graham said the government proposal focusing on EVs, however, is discouraging manufacturers from investing in the development of plug-in hybrids.

O’Neill Speaks can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast service.

The fire that destroyed a plastic recycling warehouse in Richmond, Indiana was not only a disaster that forced thousands to evacuate their homes to avoid the toxic fumes. It could have an impact on the long-term health of families in the area.

During an appearance on the O’Neill Speaks podcast, the official podcast of the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Assistant Professor Marta Venier detailed a number of health issues that could face the residents of Richmond and beyond.

“This was a plastic recycling facility, so there are all kinds of chemicals being released from there,” said Venier, a world-renowned environmental chemist who studies the fate, transport, and behavior of persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, in the indoor and outdoor environment. “When you burn anything, even when you grill, you release polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. And those for sure are going to be in the air in those locations. But then we have plastic involved, and there are a lot of components to plastic. … It’s going to be an interesting soup of chemicals.”

Venier and her team have already deployed air sample collectors to get a better idea for what kinds of chemicals are in the atmosphere and water in Richmond. She’s concerned the disaster could leave a long-lasting imprint on the area.

“I will be concerned about finding dioxins there because those are really toxic,” Venier said. “These chemicals can get absorbed into the soil and be taken up by plants. That will put these chemicals in the food people grow. It’s spring, so people have already started to plant. There can be long-term effects because these chemicals are extremely persistent.”

Long-term health issues associated with the chemicals include cancer, increased obesity, and decreased immune responses, among others. Venier advises people avoid spending too much time outside, and when they do go outside, wear masks.

How did an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 change the future of the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs?

Listeners can find out during the debut episode of the O’Neill Speaks Podcast, the school’s official podcast, featuring special guest Dean Siân Mooney.

Presenting new episodes every two weeks, O’Neill Speaks will feature our world-renowned faculty and researchers who will provide their analysis of the most pressing challenges facing society. Through their insight and policy expertise, our guests will educate and change the way listeners think about their world.

“The O’Neill School has built its reputation over the past 50 years by bringing unique perspectives to the problems we all face,” Mooney said. “O’Neill Speaks is a great forum for our researchers to address the groundbreaking work being done at our school while also giving them the opportunity to break down current events as they happen.”

O’Neill Speaks will also provide a glimpse at the personalities who are part of the O’Neill School. Mooney, for instance, details her path from being a first-generation college student to becoming dean of the top-ranked school of public and environmental affairs in the country. An economist by training, she once dreamed of becoming a veterinarian before falling in love with research.

“I actually had quite a lot of animals when I was younger,” Mooney said. “Dogs, a couple of horses, that kind of thing, and I really thought that being a vet would be the way that I would go. … When I was an undergraduate student, and this was in the United Kingdom, Chernobyl blew. There was a plume of radioactivity that traveled across Europe, and I was in Wales at the time. It rains there quite a lot, and so this radioactive plume rained radioactive rain in Wales, and some of the food supply became contaminated.”

Mooney’s interest in the issue led to her becoming a research assistant, starting her on the path that would eventually lead to the O’Neill School.

O’Neill Speaks will focus on major policy issues, but it will also explore overlooked challenges that impact our everyday life. Breaking news events will also be covered by O’Neill faculty to bring their perspective to the discussion.

O’Neill Speaks can be found on Apple Podcasts , Spotify, or your favorite podcast service.

The pandemic took a toll on nonprofit jobs according to a new Indiana University report that focuses on nonprofits during 2020, with Indiana nonprofits showing a job loss for the first time since 1995.

The losses, which amounted to 5 percent in total, were most pronounced between the first and second quarter of 2020 (down 8 percent), reflecting the impact of the arrival of COVID-19 in early March. Nonprofit jobs then recovered slowly but incompletely over the remaining year.

The report, COVID-19, Indiana Nonprofit Paid Employment, and the Payroll Protection Program, 2020, tracks how the pandemic impacted paid nonprofit employment in Indiana in key industries over the course of 2020 and the extent to which the massive Payroll Protection Program (PPP) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities (CARES) Act appears to have cushioned the impact.

The study uses comprehensive quarterly employment and wage data to track Indiana nonprofit employment by quarter in 2020 for five key industries: health care; social assistance; education; membership associations; and arts entertainment and recreation (AER). These five industries account for more than 90 percent of all paid nonprofit employment in Indiana. Additional analysis is based on micro-level data on 82,414 PPP loan payments of $9.5 billion processed and approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for establishments with Indiana addresses during 2020.

The percent of nonprofit jobs lost varied considerably across nonprofit industries. Using jobs in the first quarter (Q1) as the base line, the health care industry saw a much smaller percentage loss in nonprofit jobs (loss of 1 percent) by Q4 than social assistance and education (each down 7 percent). Membership associations (down 12 percent) and the very small arts, entertainment, and recreation (AER) industry (down 14 percent) both saw much larger losses.

However, despite the loss of jobs, total annual nonprofit payroll increased by 3 percent between 2019-2020, continuing an unbroken pattern of annual increases since 1995. Payroll declined between Q1 and Q2, but only by 2 percent, and remained below the Q1 level through Q3 before increasing enough by Q4 to more than offset losses in prior quarters.

Payroll gains varied considerably across nonprofit industries. Using payroll in Q1 as the baseline, total nonprofit payroll was 10 percent higher in Q4 than in Q1. The health care industry saw the largest gain in payroll (up 13 percent) with social assistance close behind (11 percent). Payroll gains were notably lower in education (up 6 percent) and membership associations (up 4 percent). Arts, entertainment, and recreation was the only nonprofit industry to show lower payroll in Q4 than in Q1, and the loss was considerable–down 14 percent.

“The gains in total nonprofit payroll during 2020 are remarkable, given declines in total nonprofit employment,” notes Kirsten Grønbjerg, Director of the Indiana Nonprofits Project and Distinguished Professor at Indiana University. “However, the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), along with smaller philanthropic initiatives, likely softened the impact of COVID-19 on Indiana nonprofit employers.”

 The report finds that the influx of cash provided by the PPP loans appears to have impacted nonprofit employers differently than for-profit ones. In some ways, (share of loans and total loan dollars), nonprofits appear to have benefitted less than for-profits. In other dimensions, (average dollar value of PPP loans per number of employees), nonprofits appear to have benefitted more than for-profits. However, these patterns differ notably across nonprofit industries.

About the briefing

This briefing is the seventeenth in a series of reports from Indiana Nonprofit Employment, produced by the Indiana Nonprofit Sector: Scope and Community Dimensions project, designed to inform local community leaders and policymakers. The analysis is a joint effort of the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and the Indiana Business Research Center, all part of Indiana University. The briefing’s co-authors are the director of the project, Kirsten Grønbjerg and research assistant and IU MPA graduate David Kovarik.

About the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs

The O’Neill School is a world leader in public and environmental affairs and is the largest school of public administration and public policy in the United States. In the 2021, “Best Graduate Public Affairs Programs” by U.S. News & World Report, the O’Neill School ranks first in the country. Four of its specialty programs are ranked in the top-five listings, including nonprofit management, ranked first.

About the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy is dedicated to improving philanthropy to improve the world by training and empowering students and professionals to be innovators and leaders who create positive and lasting change. The school offers a comprehensive approach to philanthropy through its undergraduate, graduate, certificate and professional development programs, its research and international programs and through The Fund Raising School, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, the Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy and the Women’s Philanthropy Institute.

About the Indiana Business Research Center

The Indiana Business Research Center is an integral unit in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Established in 1925, the IBRC provides and interprets the economic information needed by the state’s business, government and nonprofit organizations, as well as users of such information throughout the nation. The IBRC powers its research (and others) with its vast databases on numerous topics including income, employment, taxes, and a host of other economic indicators for the nation, the state and local areas. In addition, the Center conducts original research to generate needed information when existing data are not available or sufficient.