California State University , Long Beach Research Articles

ACRL candidates for 2022: A look at who’s running

Beth McNeil is dean of Libraries and School of Information Studies, Esther Ellis Norton Professor of Library Science at Purdue University, a position she has held since 2019. Prior to this, McNeil served as dean of Library Services at Iowa State University (2015-19), associate dean of academic affairs/scholarly communication at Purdue Libraries (2007-15), and associate dean at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) (2004-07). José Aguiñaga s librarian/branch coordinator at Glendale Community College, North Campus, a position he has held from 2008 to 2017 and 2018-present. Additionally, Aguiñaga served as lecturer with the School of Information at San José State University (2020-present), dean of library and instructional support at Rio Hondo College (2017-18), librarian at California State University-Long Beach (2001-05), social sciences librarian at Arizona State University-West (1999-2001), electronic resources librarian at the University of San Diego (1997-99), and social sciences librarian and library personnel coordinator at the University of Houston (1994-97).

Using organizational patterns as a strategy for teaching expository writing in an introductory food science course

AbstractOrganizational patterns can serve as a teaching strategy for instructors and as a learning tool for students to develop their expository writing skills, which are commonly required for assignments (for example, laboratory reports and research papers) in Food Science courses and in their future careers. The article discusses the importance of organizational patterns for teaching expository writing through an interdisciplinary collaboration. The teaching collaboration occurred with professors from Food Science, English, and Anthropology in an introductory Food Science course (FSCI 232) taught at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). In FSCI 232, students learned how to use organizational patterns to interpret and explain the content of an infographic obtained from the Food Technology magazine, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). The infographic “Global Obesity's Expanding Girth, the World is Getting Fatter” served as a visual stimulus to help students identify these patterns, focusing on inquiry and analysis of scientific data and skills required for technical writing. Furthermore, the article illustrates those other potential applications of organizational patterns using the infographic could extend to interdisciplinary content (that is, Food Anthropology), which facilitates the development of cultural competency and sensitivity in food systems. Additionally, the article provides sample activities for teachers to use in their classrooms. To summarize, organizational patterns can serve as an effective teaching strategy to enhance students’ writing skills across Food Science and related disciplines.

Applying Kolb's experiential learning framework to investigate the safety of energy drinks in a critical thinking general education course

AbstractThrough a collaboration between a professor in academia and an industry professional, entry‐level food science students were given the opportunity to critically evaluate the safety of energy drinks. This evaluation occurred through a General Education (Category A3) course designated “Critical Thinking” at California State University – Long Beach (CSULB), where students were introduced to a variety of controversial issues in food science. The goal of the course was for students to apply critical thinking skills to formulate conclusions that are factual, rather than judgmental and biased. Using Kolb's experiential learning framework, students completed exercises in an active‐learning classroom (ALC) environment, which encouraged exploration, reflection, and application. For the exploration phase, students were presented with six commercially available caffeinated beverages and were asked to categorize them as “energy drink” or “not energy drink.” For the reflection phase, students were presented with news articles, as well as peer‐reviewed scientific research articles. Students were tasked with reflecting on how the information in the research articles confirmed or disproved the information in the news articles. Finally, for the application phase, students were asked whether they believed energy drinks should be banned and why or why not. In conclusion, through Kolb's exploration‐reflection‐application framework and through the ALC environment, students learned how to use critical thinking to identify fallacies in news coverage of controversial products, such as energy drinks.

Learners' experience and needs in online environments: adopting agility in teaching

PurposeIn response to coronavirus disease 2019, California State University Long Beach (CSULB) announced mandatory online course conversions on March 12, 2020. The College of Business designed a Student Online Learning Experience Survey to explore learners' experience, needs, expectations and challenges in the online learning environment.Design/methodology/approachThe time-sensitive survey questions were administered using Qualtrics with Institutional Review Board approval. The authors used 5-point Likert scales to rate students' experience and satisfaction and performed statistical analysis. They assessed students' written comments to further corroborate statistical findings.FindingsThe results identify students' satisfaction are highly correlated to content coverage and interaction of online learning technologies. A combination of BeachBoard, Zoom, e-mails and publisher's website is valued most by the learners. Project-based experiential design is ranked #1 by graduate students. Noticeably, the upward trend of satisfaction with online modality from sophomore to senior is probably attributable to learners' maturity and number of years studied at CSU system. Overall, students generally dislike proctoring devices due to concerns of privacy, inequalities, mental stress, etc.Practical implicationsThe evidence-based results offer innovative pedagogical recommendations for business education in higher education.Originality/valueWhile prior studies examine student perceptions and satisfaction within the online education system, the study aims to deeply investigate the students' experience after a large-scale two-week institutional emergency course conversion mandate. This study systematically reviews students' experience with four aspects of online learning: (1) the adequacy of instructional designs; (2) the effectiveness of technology; (3) the appropriateness of the online learning material and (4) the integrity of online assessment and testing tools.

Preparing Undergraduate Students for Summer Research Experiences and Graduate School Applications in a Pandemic Environment: Development and Implementation of Online Modules.

Engaging students in research is a high impact practice that improves student retention and persistence in behavioral and biomedical sciences and engineering. The California State University Long Beach (CSULB) Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program offers an intensive research training experience to undergraduate students from a wide range of health-related disciplines. The goal of this program is to provide students with research skills, psychosocial resources, and graduate school application guidance that will make them competitive for Ph.D. programs. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the campus closure of many universities, including CSULB, our student training had to transition from in-person training to online training. This paper discusses the development and implementation of a series of eight online modules for guiding students through the application process for summer research experiences and graduate schools. Overall, the BUILD trainees were positive about the online modules. Specifically, they indicated that the modules were useful, informative, easy to access/use, good use of their time, and a good supplemental activity to their learning community activities. Most trainees indicated that they preferred the modules to be implemented in a hybrid format, where the students can view the modules on their own first and then have an opportunity to engage in in-person/synchronous online discussions.

Developing Academic Engagement Through a Virtual Week of Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity: Rethinking Collaboration.

The goal of having a Week of Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity (RSCA) virtual event was to highlight and acknowledge the valuable array of research, scholarly, and creative activities that are currently being done across the entire campus at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). There's no doubt that in 2020 and 2021, our lives have been impacted in a multitude of ways. The COVID-19 global pandemic placed restrictions on in-person gatherings that forced many to rely on virtual meetings. Even with 'zoom' fatigue taking over, we felt that it was essential to hold the Week of RSCA event virtually in the 2020-2021 academic year. Students, faculty, and staff on campus are a community that supports one another, and CSULB seeks to enhance its local/national/global communities with the research, scholarly and creative activities that we conduct on our campus. This paper describes the development of the Week of RSCA event, its transition from an in-person to virtual event, the challenges for delivering a virtual event, and the lessons learned when we have to rethink collaboration during a pandemic.

Application of fully permeable pavements as a sustainable approach for mitigation of stormwater runoff

Abstract The current research paper presents the implementation of a new design method for fully permeable pavements, developed using the mechanistic-empirical approach by the University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC) through building two test sections which includes asphalt and concrete at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). Fully permeable pavements are characterized as that in which all layers are permeable, and the pavement structure serves as a reservoir to store water and minimize the negative impacts of stormwater. Pressure cells and strain gages were installed during the construction of pavement for measuring the stress on the top of subgrade and strain at the bottom of surface layer on both test sections to evaluate the performance of the fully permeable pavement. In this study, the traffic count was also determined. The collected data from pressure cells and strain gages were analysed using MATLAB program and graphs were plotted to study the pattern in the data sets. The plots revealed that the asphalt section experienced more stress and strain in comparison to concrete test section. Both the test sections showed reliable performance in terms of distresses. Though the year 2017 was considered to be one of the wettest in California, both test sections performed well in infiltrating the stormwater. The collected data is being used to evaluate the performance of both test sections. Based on the performance evaluation results, it was determined that it is possible to develop and implement the fully permeable pavement design as part of a sustainable approach for freeways.

Advancing research opportunities and promoting pathways in graduate education: a systemic approach to BUILD training at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)

Background and purposeFirst-generation college graduates, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds are gravely underrepresented in the health research workforce representing behavioral health sciences and biomedical sciences and engineering (BHS/BSE). Furthermore, relative to their peers, very few students from these underrepresented groups (URGs) earn scientific bachelor’s degrees with even fewer earning doctorate degrees. Therefore, programs that engage and retain URGs in health-related research careers early on in their career path are imperative to promote the diversity of well-trained research scientists who have the ability to address the nation’s complex health challenges in an interdisciplinary way. The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges, lessons learned, and sustainability of implementing a large-scale, multidisciplinary research infrastructure at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) – a minority-serving institution – through federal funding received by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative.Program and key highlightsThe CSULB BUILD initiative consists of developing a research infrastructure designed to engage and retain URGs on the research career path by providing them with the research training and skills needed to make them highly competitive for doctoral programs and entry into the research workforce. This initiative unites many research disciplines using basic, applied, and translational approaches to offer insights and develop technologies addressing prominent community and national health issues from a multidisciplinary perspective. Additionally, this initiative brings together local (e.g., high school, community college, doctoral research institutions) and national (e.g., National Research Mentoring Network) collaborative partners to alter how we identify, develop, and implement resources to enhance student and faculty research. Finally, this initiative establishes a student research training program that engages URGs earlier in their academic development, is larger and multidisciplinary in scope, and is responsive to the life contexts and promotes the cultural capital that URGs bring to their career path.ImplicationsAlthough there have been many challenges to planning for and developing CSULB BUILD’s large-scale, multidisciplinary research infrastructure, there have been many lessons learned in the process that could aid other campuses in the development and sustainability of similar research programs.

Facebook Profile Pictures: Gender Differences in Frequency and Type of Profile Pictures Posted within One-Year Period Among Older Adults

This study examines gender differences between the frequency and the types of profile pictures posted on Facebook within a twelve-month period among adults aged fifty or over. The purpose of this study is to follow-up on previous research conducted by the Facebook Research Group at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), which consisted of a younger sample (Fiebert, Castaneda, Pham, McGivern, Caudillo, & Warren, 2017). The method of data collection and analysis closely replicated the previous study. Profile pictures were categorized into one of four groups: 1) self in close-up; 2) self in long shot; 3) self with group; 4) other. In congruence with the previous study, this study found that women changed their profile pictures significantly more frequently than men. However, in contrast to the previous study, this study found that the most commonly posted profile picture for both genders is self with group, and the least common profile picture posted for both genders was self in long shot.

David Lamelas: Restaging Past Art to Foster Reinvention

Argentine artist, David Lamelas, is an example of how one might harness nostalgia into a productive force that provides—for both the artist and society—insights into our present situation. Lamelas accomplishes such insights by the constant restaging of his works, from his early career during the 1960s in his birth city of Buenos Aires to his still-active projects. With each restaging, Lamelas seems acutely sensitive of new spaces and new audiences, whose viewing necessarily alters the potential messages of the pieces. These pieces span a wide spectrum from object-based Pop to Light-and-Space installations, and from film to conceptual environments; yet, a consistency weaves throughout—a continuous idea that art should never stagnate. I suggest that this consistency exists because Lamelas views his art as possessing a life of its own in which meaning accumulates and shifts over time. As with any life, change necessarily occurs—not only from within but from without. Interactions with each new audience or generation revise perceptions, both the self-defined and socially-derived. Lamelas’s art projects, though revived through public nostalgia for his work, transcend time, thus challenging perceptions that nostalgia hinders newness. In this essay, I aim to explore to what extent the concept of time manifests in Lamelas’s pieces as concurrently a celebration of nostalgia and a challenge to stagnancy. To support my claim that Lamelas’s revisits foster awareness of the constant potential of newness, I will primarily focus on the reinstallations of Lamelas’s pieces the Office of Information about the Vietnam War at Three Levels: The Visual Image, Text, and Audio (1968), Time as Activity: Dusseldorf (1969), and Situation of Time (1967). Further, I reference Lamelas’s own words, largely taken from a March 2016 informal interview with California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) graduate students, including myself, as part of his preparation for the forthcoming exhibit of his art at the CSULB University Art Museum, sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative.

Highly Valued Degrees at California State University, Long Beach

California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) received the 2014 national award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) for Excellence and Innovation in Student Su...

Mycelia, and: Silver Pine Inn

Mycelia, and: Silver Pine Inn Charles Harper Webb (bio) Mycelia She stands beside him as the guide tipsa morel to show gill-spirals measledwith gray spores. When he bends to seean orange milk-cap shrug from the mulchy [End Page 117] forest floor, her head moves closerthan it needs—just as, when everyone piledinto cars for the drive here, her left breastpressed firmly against his right side. "When conditions are right," the guideexplains, adjusting his flop hat, "mushroomsspring up from the mycelial mat.That can stretch for acres underground." Rain whaps and splats the tops of trees.Soon drops will spill, and patter down.For now, the leaves are like his father's army tentthat kept him dry on rainy Saturdays. "'Shrooms are amazing," he says to everyone."They really are," she says to him.He has a wife, two sons, and thought he wascontent. But now he feels mycelia pulsing underneath his cropped green lawn and ranch-stylehome—under the field where his boysplay Little League—under the king-sized bedwhere, lately, his wife and he just sleep. The woods are humid, temperature just right."Look here," he says. The others walk ahead,leaving to them an amanita muscaria's mind-alteringglory: red, burning, thrust into the light. [End Page 118] Silver Pine Inn Outside, a soggy snow slops down.Inside, a fire pops and cracks,straining to hoist the clammy coldonto its back and lug it, bucketby iron bucket, up the flue. Snow has covered the toy trucksome child left next to my real one.Snow is covering that, too.My family, who normally loomlarge in my life as these mountains that surround me, fall awayto ant size as I rise in the balloonknown as Room B-119,There's no phone here. TV'sbroken. Books lie unopened in the suitcase I droppedbeside the bed. Now I can hearthe heavy banging I carrylike a boom box in my head.How painfully it shakes my bones! If I sit long enough in this straight-backedchair, maybe I'll findthe dial, and learn the touchthat turns the banging down.If I open the drapes behind my eyes and say, "Come in"to the dark that's poundedon my door for years, maybeI'll see what wants to speak to meso much. [End Page 119] Charles Harper Webb Charles Harper Webb's most recent book is Shadow Ball: New and Selected Poems (U of Pittsburgh P). What Things Are Made Of (U of Pittsburgh P) is forthcoming. He is a recipient of grants from the Whiting and Guggenheim foundations and directs the MFA program in creative writing at California State University-Long Beach. Copyright © 2012 University of Nebraska Press

Starting From Ground Zero: Establishing a Collection for a New Doctoral Program

This article reports a librarian's collection development efforts to support her institution's first independent doctoral degree (Ed.D., Educational Leadership) via a citation analysis comparing information usage by education doctorate dissertation authors from six peer institutions nationally. This analysis is part of a long-term examination of library collection use among California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) doctoral students. Key findings include the relative young age among the information resources in educational leadership, which resource formats were cited, what serial titles were cited the most, and where they are available electronically. The ultimate aim is the creation of an essential collection in the subject discipline.

Expand and Contract: E-Learning Shapes the World in Cyprus and in California

Expand and ContractE-Learning Shapes the World in Cyprus and in California Nancy Strow Sheley (bio) and Carol Zitzer-Comfort (bio) In the spring of 2008, university students enrolled in courses at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), and the University of Cyprus (UCY) participated in a cross-cultural e-learning project in which they studied American Indian literature and history. All students followed the same six-week syllabus, which included shared readings and films. These common texts became the basis for dialogue via online discussion boards as students struggled to explain causes of prejudice, ethnic conflict, racial hatred, and genocidal acts. Their interactions and reactions with these materials brought to light the many guises of historical and contemporary cultural conflict and suffering: dominant groups marking Indigenous peoples for extinction, film and literature depicting such groups as prematurely “extinct,” religious factions often being responsible for past and present horrors, and societies and institutions perpetuating hatred through focusing on skewed histories. For American students, stories of American Indians and genocide deepened implications of their country’s history and exposed untold truths. Students in California, whose knowledge of American Indian history was nearly as nonexistent as that of their Cypriot peers, were appalled at the historical facts of forced sterilization of Native women, of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding schools, of extermination by smallpox, and of the US policies of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”—all of these issues illustrated in reading materials and in the documentary The Canary Effect (2007). For students [End Page 71] in Cyprus, studying US policies that led to the persecution of American Indians not only gave them a more enlightened view of American history but also illuminated their own country’s past acts of genocide. In their analyses of these same materials, the Cypriots began to compare the historical mistreatment of American Indians to their own country’s “problem”—a thirty-five-year division between cultures, marred by wars, isolationist politics, prejudice, and fear—known worldwide as “the Cyprus Problem.” This project thus facilitated the expanding of students’ learning as their learning crossed national boundaries while encouraging them to also focus on their own country’s lesser-known histories. Background This international classroom and subject exchange project was developed after Professor Nancy Strow Sheley received a Fulbright Award to teach American Studies at UCY in Nicosia, Cyprus, in the spring of 2008. Her proposed course was titled “The Conflicted American Dream: Multiple Perspectives, Critical Views.” Also that spring, Professor Carol Zitzer-Comfort was scheduled to teach “American Ethnic Writers” at CSULB and planned to emphasize protest literature. We developed a six-week shared unit, digitally connecting UCY students with those at CSULB, in order to have students read the same materials, respond to the same prompts, watch the same visual media, and correspond online, via the Discussion Board (Black Board). As the project planning evolved, the following guiding questions emerged to frame teaching and research: • How can American Indian literature (film, popular culture, ideas) be used to examine cultural conflict and how such conflicts are maintained? How does protest literature focus on the issues, and when does it become effective in addressing conflict? • What similarities can be found among (a) the cultural divisions in America that result in the “conflicted” American dream, (b) the treatment of American Indian peoples past and present in [End Page 72] America, and (c) the social, cultural, political, and ethnic divides that currently exist in Cyprus? • How does digital technology inform pedagogical choices for this project? • How will two different cultural groups respond to the historical genocide and subsequent “survivance” of American Indian groups? • Does proximity to the issues of Native Americans, among students in the United States and Cyprus, suggest more empathy for the human situation, or can students a world apart find examples closer to home to relate to human suffering caused by political decisions? • Specifically, will Cyprus students allude to “the Cyprus Problem” and the divided country in their responses about cultural injustices, prejudice, and alienation? • How will the analyses of the issues surrounding Native American genocide and subjugation relate to major themes in the course: How is history written as “truth,” who writes it...

The Resource Team Model: An Innovative Mentoring Program for Academic Librarians

Mentoring is a service activity that librarians must engage in to ensure a smooth integration of new library faculty. This case study describes the process of implementing a new mentoring model approach in an academic library, the Resource Team Model (RTM). The California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Resource Team is an innovative model of mentoring, coaching, and training which includes a broader network of support for mentors and mentees.1 It is formed by a trinity of mentor librarians with different strengths who mobilize for six months to guide and support one new librarian. The main objectives of this model are to acclimatize the mentee to all areas of librarianship and to the culture of the new organization. The RTM ensures that new librarian mentees have the tools and support to move seamlessly into the fabric of the organization and to flourish professionally as they move towards tenure. The RTM approach is not a group mentoring, a mutual mentoring network, or a mentoring circle model as described in the literature. The advantages and disadvantages of the model are discussed, and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and pressures from both the mentor and mentee perspective at the CSULB University Library are examined.

Leroy Hardy

Leroy C. Hardy, emeritus professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), passed away on November 2, 2008, at the age of 81. He specialized in California government and politics and was best known as a long-term consultant to state legislators on the subject of the reapportionment of legislative districts.

Chapter 7: Romancing the Muse

A faculty professional uniting program called the Scholarly Writing Institute (SWI) at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) presents a replicable model to accelerate and support faculty uniting. Based on Boice's (1990, 1994, 2000) work in faculty research productivity, the program combines individual uniting time with editing and statistical consultation, panel discussions by prolific faculty, and reflective reporting of uniting outcomes. Held over a three- to four-day period during semester breaks, the Institute is particularly accessible to faculty with family responsibilities. Evaluations indicate participant satisfaction with the experience and attitudinal change about successful writing strategies.

Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderFeature1 Dec 2008Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders Melanie Johnson Melanie Johnson Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.FTR3.13172008.22 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In This year marks the 10th annual Minority Student Leadership Program (MSLP), established in 1999 to serve as a leadership development tool for racial/ethnic minority students enrolled in communication sciences and disorders. In the program, which took place at the ASHA Convention, participants had the opportunity to gain insight into their own leadership skills and a better understanding of how leaders effect change in their professional association. The students participate in activities to increase their awareness of the association, including observing committees and boards, and have direct access to association leaders through networking at the MSLP Leadership Simulation, the Multicultural Concerns Collective (MC2) meeting, and other convention events. Thirty undergraduate and master’s students have traditionally participated in the program; in 2006, 10 doctoral students were added, further developing the leadership skills of future teacher/scholars in the discipline. Melanie Johnson, membership programs manager, can be reached at [email protected]. Class of 2008 Undergraduate seniors: Alethea Chamberlin, California State University-Sacramento; Maria Farris, Utah State University; Selena Galaviz, Washington State University; Aileen Grant, California State University-Fullerton; Christy Huynh, Texas Christian University; QuaSheba Jones, University of Memphis; Serena Kaur Singh, The University of Arizona. First-year master’s students: LyndiEmoto, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Elizabeth Guerrini, California State University-Long Beach; Joyce Huh, Teachers College at Columbia University; Carla Ochoa, San Francisco State University; Tyra Oliver, North Carolina Central University; FernanTolentino, California State University-Sacramento; Mileen Woods, University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Second-year master’s students: Meijie Chen, Purdue University; Felicia Conlan, California State University-Northridge; Danielle Corneille, Medical University of South Carolina; Josefine Garcia, University of New Hampshire-Durham; Iris Lee, Boston University; Sara Neff, University of Minnesota-Duluth; Elizabeth Oommen, Ohio University; Maria Nieto Quintero, University of Florida; Mariza Rosales, University of Kansas; Marycarmen Rosales, California State University-Chico; Sarah Ross, Portland State University; Alisha Sanchez, University of Northern Iowa; Diana Sanchez, Long Island University at Brooklyn; Ashley Wiley, San Jose State University. Entry-level clinical doctorate students: Robert Chang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Chester Charles III, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center; Angie Jaboin, Adelphi University; Artice Weston Jr., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Aileen Wong, University of Arizona. PhD students: Danielle Hayes, University of Cincinnati; Kara Medeiros, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Lucía Méndez, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Lindsay Meyer, Louisiana State University; Nayda Torres-Soto, Alayna Townsend, and Miguelina Zapata, Howard University. Author Notes Melanie Johnson, membership programs manager, can be reached at [email protected]. Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 13Issue 17December 2008 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Dec 1, 2008 Metrics Downloaded 91 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2008 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

Contemporary Economic Policy2005–2006 Editor's Report

Volume 23 published quarterly in 2005 comprised 48 articles (655 p.) and 88 authors and coauthors from a variety of topic areas as defined by the Journal of Economic Literature classification system. Table 1 provides a distribution of articles via Journal of Economic Literature topic area. JOURNAL STATISTICS Active participation in the annual conferences of the Western Economic Association International (WEAI) is encouraged by editors and members of the editorial board. Table 2 provides information on the number of sessions that were sponsored by Contemporary Economic Policy at the annual meeting held in San Francisco in 2005 and the Pacific Rim conference held in Hong Kong in 2005. CEP sponsored 32 sessions in San Francisco (11% of the total sessions) and 12 sessions in Hong Kong (23% of the sessions). The WEAI conferences provided approximately 36% of our total manuscript submissions for 2005-2006. During the 2005-2006 publishing cycle, 111 manuscripts were submitted for review to CEP. There were 40 manuscripts submitted from the San Francisco conference as well as 71 nonconference submissions. At this time, 5 manuscripts have been accepted for publication and 45 rejected with 61 decisions pending. These figures are consistent with the more recent acceptance rates ranging from 23% in 1999-2000 to approximately 30% in 2003-2004 (see Table 2). An important contribution to enhancing the quality of the journal is the refereeing process. CEP uses a double-blind process with the objective of obtaining three referee reports for each manuscript. As Table 2 demonstrates, we are making a significant effort to contact referees and make sure that the editorial team has well-grounded input in order to make informed decisions regarding the manuscripts. During 2005-2006 we received 240 referee reports that have helped to provide constructive input to improve accepted manuscripts as well as input for authors of rejected manuscripts. Individuals who have generously provided their contribution as referees for the journal are listed in Table 3. The time to decision for authors is a critical variable for most journals but is particularly important for CEP since the objective is to inform current policy debates. The editorial team is working hard to reduce the time to first decision so that important contributions to the policy debates are available as soon as possible. The most recent statistics indicate that a first decision is made in 23 weeks on average for 2004-2006, down from 34 weeks on average in 2003-2005. Our objective is to reduce the average to 20 weeks this coming year. In order to achieve this objective, we have modified our manuscript processing procedures. We have increased the use of electronic media to circulate the manuscripts to coeditors and referees. Also, we contact potential referees in order to receive a commitment to referee prior to sending the manuscript. These changes are beginning to show positive results and reducing the time to make a first decision on a manuscript. We are also in the process of converting to an online submission process. We expect to have the system fully functional by January 2007. BEST ARTICLE AND EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARDS As with every volume there are a number of articles deserving of special recognition. The editorial team wishes to recognize two articles of particular relevance to policy debates in two important areas, social security reform and environmental regulation. Best Article Award Harris, Amy Rehder, John Sabelhaus, and Michael Simpson. Social Security Benefit Uncertainty under Individual Accounts. Contemporary Economic Policy, 23 (1): 1-16. doi: 10.1093/cep/byi001. Editor's Choice Award Schwarz, Peter M. Multipollutant Efficiency Standards for Electricity Production. Contemporary Economic Policy, 23 (3): 341-356. doi: 10.1093/cep/byi026. CHANGES AT THE JOURNAL During the past year we have been able to add Steve Yamarik from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), to the editorial team. …

Crossing Academic Cultures: A Rubric for Students and Teachers

Mark T. Williams is an Assistant Professor of English and the Composition Program Coordinator at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). He has published in 18th Century Studies, co-authored a chapter in Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention, and has an article on Kenneth Burke forthcoming in Rhetoric Review. Gladys Garcia has taught composition, literature, and ESL courses in the Chicano/Latino Studies and English Departments at CSULB since 1988. Childhood experiences in Spain and Cuba help to inspire her continuing interest in foreign languages, and she has published and produced educational materials on language acquisition for teacher and student use.