Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Intelligence gathering and proliferation techniques will face unique challenges in the 21st century. The spread of global terrorism, and combined with the global proliferation of the Internet further complicate this issue. Whereas the Internet provides a streamlined form of increasingly simple and accessible channels of communication, it simultaneously can be used for criminal and terrorist activities. The design of the Internet and the protocols that make it work permit terrorists to conceal locations, sources and even destinations of fund transfers, and or fund storage online. Online, offshore access and manipulation provide an easy conduit for terrorist financing operations. This paper will explore and define the problem as it exists today, and will provide some insight as to how this threat can be managed in the future, via tools, investigations or enhanced intelligence-gathering techniques. To this end, the paper will propose a taxonomy for managing future online terrorist fund-raising and fund transfer activities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper reflects upon the political contestation of pension fund investment practices in the US and UK. Critical understandings of pension fund capitalism shared by academics and activists tend to assert the contemporary hegemony of finance capital. Workers savings are being manipulated through pension fund investment practices that maximise financial returns at the expense of workers welfare. A class politics of resistance follows that seeks to re-insert the interests and values of labour into the investment practices of pension funds. The task for activists becomes to replace short-termism and the drive for shareholder value in investment with the long-term concerns of stakeholders. The paper will argue, however, that this vision of pension fund socialism is more problematic than is often assumed. It is not simply that the corporate governance campaigns of pension fund activists have proved unable up to this point to shake the hold of shareholder value over investment practices. Rather, pension fund socialism calls up a politics of resistance that claims to operate in the name of the working class understood as a cohesive set of interests. Transformations in Anglo-American occupational pensions, most notably the shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans, are at the same time creating multiple identities and perceived interests. Therefore, the paper marks out a broader politics of dissent that imagines and promotes political space in which collectivities can emerge amongst individualised pension savers interested in practicing progressive forms of investment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Fund raising has been conducted in various shapes and sizes for decades but is only now establishing itself as a true profession. The dynamics involved with certain professional roles include a clear definition of the field and a description of those that perform the tasks and functions of that field. Furthermore, the roles of practitioners exemplify the duties of the profession and the level of competence needed to establish a model for best practices in fund raising.
The purpose of this study is to explore the theory-driven research of role theory in public relations and its application to fund raising. This objective will be accomplished by examining, Broom and Smith’s role theory (1969), Spitzberg and Cupach’s communication competence theory (1984), and Rokeach’s (1973) instrumental values (1966). In accomplishing these objectives, two research questions will be answered and used as a base for further study in fund raising.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: The State of Minnesota funds its public schools primarily through a funding formula that provides school districts the same amount of revenue per pupil regardless of the size of their enrollment. In an earlier paper (Thorson and Edmondson 2000), we demonstrated that, similar to other areas of the economy, larger school districts incur less cost per pupil due to savings attributed to increased efficiency derived from the economic principle of “economies of scale.” The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether smaller school districts, as a result of their higher costs per pupil, experience greater hardship in the areas of infrastructure, resources, and staffing. To test this hypothesis, we surveyed school superintendents throughout Minnesota. Over 88 percent of public school superintendents responded to the survey. Some of our most important findings include:

• In many key areas of infrastructure and technology, small school districts had significantly lower quality levels compared to larger school districts in the state.
• Smaller school districts had much more difficulty than larger school districts in attracting and retaining teachers.
• The disparities between small and large school districts are even larger when one compares the low referendum small districts with other school districts in the state.
• To help eliminate these disparities, we recommend altering the state’s basic funding formula (currently $4,601 per student) to provide 8 percent more funding for a district’s first 500 students and an additional 4 percent to the next 500 students. All additional students beyond the first 1,000 in each district would be funded at the $4,601 level. These increased revenues would be available to all school districts in the state. The total cost of the proposal is $77 million (less than 2 percent of state educational revenues).