1) Black Mountain Town Square Consultancy Project Proposal
We are excited about the possibility of working with the Town of Black Mountain to gauge public input on the future of Town Square. We have worked with many local governments and non-profits in western North Carolina and believe we have the knowledge and experience to produce a useful report that will help guide the town to make the best decision possible. Our proposal includes three main components: (1) focus groups, (2) a scientifically conducted survey, and (3) presenting the results to the town in the most useful way possible.
For more information concerning the Black Mountain Town Square Consultancy Project Proposal, Click Here.
2) The 11th American Youth Congress
The Public Policy Institute presents the American Youth Congress (AYC) each year with the goals of teaching the importance of civic education and responsible citizenship to the middle school and high school students in Western North Carolina. We are able to better equip our youth with the knowledge and importance of civic duty by teaching how the legislative process works and providing a better understanding of the actual process. Not only do students have the opportunity to have a hands-on experience of the legislative process, but they get the chance to speak to and learn from a key, local political representative.
The 2011, 11th annual AYC will be held on April 16th. This event has been such a great learning tool for students in our region that it has become part of the annual curriculum for many schools. Along with giving middle and high school age students a realistic learning opportunity, the AYC allows for undergraduate and graduate students to gain leadership, and business skills necessary for success while implementing this project.
For more on the 11th AYC, Click Here.
3) Case Salience and Media Coverage of Supreme Court Decisions: Towards a New Measure
Increasingly, scholars recognize that patterns of elite decision-making are contingent upon issue salience, meaning that scholars who wish to understand elite behavior must have adequate measures of salience. Unfortunately, existing measures of salience in the judicial field have been met with some skepticism. We evaluate the most common measure of case salience—whether a case appears on the front page of the New York Times and then construct a new measure of case salience that avoids many of the potential biases and problems with the Times measure. By developing and testing this new measure, we uncover patterns about national media coverage of the Court and provide a potentially more representative measure of case salience.
For more information concerning our upcoming projects, contact Dr. Cooper at ccooper@email.wcu.edu.