Monday, September 30, 2019

Arnold’s Touchstone Method Essay

Arnold’s touchstone method is a comparative method of criticism. According to this method, in order to judge a poet’s work properly, a critic should compare it to passages taken from works of great masters of poetry, and that these passages should be applied as touchstones to other poetry. Even a single line or selected quotation will serve the purpose. If the other work moves us in the same way as these lines and expressions do, then it is really a great work, otherwise not. This method was recommended by Arnold to overcome the shortcomings of the personal and historical estimates of a poem. Both historical and personal estimate goes in vain. In personal estimate, we cannot wholly leave out the personal and subjective factors. In historical estimate, historical importance often makes us rate a work as higher than it really deserves. In order to form a real estimate, one should have the ability to distinguish a real classic. At this point, Arnold offers his theory of Touchstone Method. A real classic, says Arnold, is a work, which belongs to the class of the very best. It can be recognized by placing it beside the known classics of the world. Those known classics can serve as the touchstone by which the merit of contemporary poetic work can be tested. This is the central idea of Arnold’s Touchstone Method. Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method of Criticism was really a comparative system of criticism. Arnold was basically a classicist. He admired the ancient Greek, Roman and French authors as the models to be followed by the modern English authors. The old English like Shakespeare, Spenser or Milton were also to be taken as models. Arnold took selected passages from the modern authors and compared them with selected passages from the ancient authors and thus decided their merits. This method was called Arnold’s Touchstone Method. However, this system of judgement has its own limitations. The method of comparing passage with a passage is not a sufficient test for determining the value of a work as a whole. Arnold himself insisted that we must judge a poem by the ‘total impression’ and not by its fragments. But we can further extend this method of comparison from passages to the poems as whole units. The comparative method is an invaluable aid to appreciation of any kind of art. It is helpful not merely thus to compare the masterpiece and the lesser work, but the good with the not so good, the sincere with the not quite sincere, and so on. Those who do not agree with this theory of comparative criticism say that Arnold is too austere, too exacting in comparing a simple modern poet with the ancient master poet. It is not fair to expect that all hills may be Alps. The mass of current literature is much better disregarded. By this method we can set apart the alive, the vital, the sincere from the shoddy, the showy and the insincere.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Falcon Computer Essay

Falcon managers documented that the company’s communications is an open kind of communication, but why did they always hold a meeting with an executive panel. Quality was said to be the most important of all, in a sense that they delivered damaged-free computers to customers; in contrast, two out of four defective computers were used in one of their trainings. Despite the fact that the employees, like Peter Richards, knows about the inconsistency between their values and behavior, they choose to behave. Because normally when we talk of our values, these are the things that we strongly feel about. These are the things we are either for or against. And it’s often easier to think of what we are for rather than what we are against. This is because we feel positive energy when we are working on what we are for. Even if our values are negative, we can be stronger and more focused by expressing it positively. The way Falcon values formulated is a technique involving the advocacy of a behavior that is opposite to the one existing with the expectation that this approach will encourage the employees of the persuasion to believe that they are working in an ideal environment against the existing reality. With this, executives possibly would like to hide the flaws of the company. They would want the employees to be positively motivated by satisfying themselves to a blind belief that there are no problems at all. And when the company closed, the employee will just have thought that this is something they have seen before and have not done anything because of the hope that a positive change might happen in between.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Responsibilities of Management in International Business within Essay

Responsibilities of Management in International Business within Lockheed Martin - Essay Example In the process, despite a well-published code of ethics, Lockheed Martin's history is not exactly a good example of managerial experience. Domain of business. Lockheed Martin is an arms manufacturer said to be one of the world's largest and most influential corporations. Three of its many focus areas are weapons systems, social services, and homeland security. (Polaris Institute, n.d.). Having profiled the corporation "to provide information to activists and citizens concerned with the power Lockheed Martin wields over their lives and the lives of others" Polaris Institute (n.d.) says Lockheed Martin is one of the most politically connected corporations in the world. With its focus on high technology, it was able to get involved with the US Postal Service, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, and the Transportation and Security Administration among others, it said. Sales. In 2003, Lockheed Martin was said to report sales of $31.8 billion, some $3.2 billion of which came from its information and technology (IT) services division. Of that amount, 40 percent came from defense services, 37 percent from IT and 23 percent from NASA. As reported by Arthur Johnson, Lockheed Martin's senior vice president of corporate strategic development, IT sales make about a quarter of Lockheed Martin's revenue, most of which comes from the federal government(Gerin 2004). All in all, seventy eight percent of this business was with the United States Government and 18% of the corporation's sales are from their international customers (Polaris Institute, n.d.) Last year, sales for the first six months rose to 17.8 billion dollars from 17.1 billion dollars, despite a drop in deliveries of F-16 fighter jets. For 2005, this biggest U.S. Defense contractor and top seller of secure computer systems saw net profit jump 41 per cent to 830 million dollars in the first six months (Bauer 2005). Also strong on missile defences, Lockheed Martin's integrated electronic combat systems and military space programmes projects 2005 sales of up to 38 billion dollars (Ibid.). III. Business Ethics Lockheed Martin that specializes in a host of products and services for the federal government has dramatically raised its ethics and business conduct program since the mega-corporation merger in 1995. With 65 "ethics officers" around the United States, it requires its 130,000 employees to devote at least an hour a year to consider the ethical issues of the business, at a cost of millions of dollars per year (Terris 2005). History of lawsuits. Lockheed Martin is said to have a long list of lawsuits and controversies, one of where the company paid $38 million to settle claims for their alleged failure in providing complete and accurate cost in bidding for a large foreign military sales contract (Polaris institute, n.d). Following a series of bribery, overcharging, and corruption scandals in the 1970s and 1980s, it formed its ethics program (Terris 2005). When interviewed in Ethically Speaking: News from The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, Terris who wrote a case study on Lockheed Martin Corporation. was said to comment: "If U.S. corporations are spending millions of dolla

Friday, September 27, 2019

Ancient Greece Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ancient Greece - Essay Example Some of the most significant Cultural Accomplishments during the Ancient Greek Civilization were as follows; one of the most noticeable accomplishments was in the field of Philosophy, many philosophers exhibited their talent in the field of Philosophy and gave rise to creativity by their influential philosophies. There were many temples built during this time but the most important of them all being the Parthenon "The classic Greek temple built on the Acropolis in Athens to honor the goddess Athena" (Ancient Civilization, 29 September 2008). These are just handful accomplishments which took place during the Ancient Greek civilization in the field of culture. During this time, Ancient Greek Economy was regarded as one of the best compared to the other Economies which prevailed at that time. In the section of religion, the Greek mythology is regarded as one of the best in the world; it provides rich history about the Gods and heroes which existed at that time. With regard to the Politi cal Accomplishments, the most significant of them all was Democracy which is followed by so many countries these days. People were free to vote and choose their representatives. When we look at the cultur

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Who am I The realization of ones self Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Who am I The realization of ones self - Essay Example Descartes Rene was a French philosopher who lived between 1595 and 1650. He was among the initial modern time philosophers to put in serious effort in ending numerous doubts on the negative ideas raised against knowledge. Alongside his interests in ancient mathematics, Descartes had interests in body and mind interrelations. Over the years, his ideas on the interrelation between body and mind have been of great significance to philosophy. Initially, his journals were in French but scholars later used them and made translations for easy understanding for the current generation. The meditation concepts that he came up with were the starting point for modern day philosophy. In addition, he tore down the notion that knowledge drew attribution from mental senses but instead focused on logic and credibility. In so doing, he developed the justification as to why things existed through his six meditation concepts. The objective of this paper shall be to outline the second meditation and draw relevant meaning to Descartes definition of ‘I’ and ‘self’. Secondly, it will dwell on other definitions of the two nouns then also bring out my definition of the same to illustrate whether other things actually do exist. Lastly, it will explore the implications of my definition towards the existence of others and carefully examine Socrates view on my perception. According to the second meditation of Descartes, the first step towards understanding ‘I’ and ‘self’ is through realization of the existence of an object or a being. Therefore, he starts by analyzing the two nouns that bring out his meaning. He gives the first as Cognoscere, which is a French word that means getting to know or discovering, or coming to a realization (Rene’ 9). The second word that he gives as part of the definition process is Cognitio that he refers to as the act of knowing because of the realization of the existence aspect. According to the second meditation of Descartes, the first step towards understanding ‘I’ and ‘self’ is through realization of the existence of an object or a being. Therefore, he starts by analyzing the two nouns that bring out his meaning. He gives the first as Cognoscere, which is a French word that means getting to know or discovering, or coming to a realization. The second word that he gives as part of the definition process is Cognitio that he refers to as the act of knowing because of the realization of the existence aspect. In essence, everything else exists beyond reasonable doubt mainly because he also exists at that particular time. Other thinkers, scholars, and publishers refer to ‘I’ as the individual aspect of a writer or a speaker when claiming ownership or existence. In other words, it is the active state of an individual in the present form. The complexity has seen diverse understanding and critics from scholars. It is different to ‘me’ in the sense that the latter is a result of mingling with others to internalize the ‘self’ aspect. ‘I’ shows reference to ones ego while ‘self’ is the claim to ownership to something. Self can also be the distinctive features that one has over all others. For instance, it is the process of identifying with the traits of oneself. However, my own understanding of ‘I’ would be that it is my own identity in terms of object possession. There are many other forms of identity, which includes personal names of an individual, but for me this word can also show reference to self. Predominantly, the ‘I’ factor is a symbol of individuality in that when I say, â€Å"I am alive† it means that for a fact I have acknowledged the fact of my existence. It is also a reference to self as people can only refer to an individual as ‘you’ and not ‘I’. More so, it is an introductory word used when one is trying to illustrate their names. In an example, a sentence starts with ‘I am’ then ‘so and so’. Therefore, the usage of any other word would be wrong in giving this description,

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Canadian Economic History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Canadian Economic History - Essay Example This paper seeks to analyze these major events in the lights of broad and diverse academic resources. From the period of 1960 till 1973, Equalization payments were made to Manitoba and Saskatchewan which offered protection to Ontario market. In the eighties, petrochemical industry was established and developed in Alberta and Manitoba concentrates on production of buses and light aircrafts(Norrie, Owram, andEmery, 125). Still several provinces relied on exports and on the revenues which were generated by the major industries. In the eighties, majority of Canadians moved to cities and several of them were associated with white collar jobs. In the sixties, the electricity sector in Quebec province was nationalized in order to remove disparities and fluctuation in rates. During the same period, Canada signed Automotive Pact with United States, which concentrated on changing the North American car manufacturing landscape and sought to establish more friendly relations between the two countries (Norrie, Owram, and Emery, 163). This assisted in improving the Canadian economy. In the seventies, the foundations for James Bay project were laid in Quebec. This hydro electric project is considered to be the largest development in the Canadian economic history. The OPEC oil crisis in the seventies led to increase in prices of oil. In 1973, the Canadian government established Petro-Canada to stimulate and encourage the exploration of oil and gas and to develop tar sands of Alberta. At the same time, it concentrated on getting hold of reliable imports and to understand the strategic importance of the industry. During the seventies, the Canadian government put efforts to control the domestic oil prices (Norrie, Owram, and Emery, 172). In the year 1975, Anti-Inflation Act was incorporated which concentrates on escalation of wage and price inflation. Consequently, the Consumer Price Index inflation was 10.7 percent in the year 1974. in 1975, it was 10.9 percent. 1980s and 1990s In the eighties, Canada experience economic recession. There was a great impact on the mineral and manufacturing industry. In 1982, mining activities and operations in Yukon were shut down. More than seven hundred thousand miners were unemployed because of recession. In the mid eighties, the Canadian economy recovered itself and its economic growth was highest among al OECD countries. However, there were vast differences in economies of different Canadian provinces. Central provinces were economically and financially strong, whereas western provinces experiences economic recession because of decrease in prices of oil and other natural resources. The Atlantic Provinces also experienced turnover (Norrie, Owram, and Emery, 175). In the 1990, the Canadian economy started to contract and was heavily affected by the recession. Although recovery began in 1991, Canada experienced high rates of unemployment and budget deficit. However, it should be noted that in the nineties the Canadian econ omic growth rate was about three percent. In the year 1992, the unemployment rate was about twelve percent, which gradually declined to eight percent in 1999.Because of economic recession of early eighties and nineties, high unemployment rates, budget deficits and disaffection were witnessed. Because of the declining economy, Progressive Conservative Party was rejected severely

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Organizational Theory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizational Theory - Research Paper Example employees to provide the society with a valuable offering (Daft, 2013). The organization theory has no single definition as it is described as a way of thinking regarding the entity and how individuals and resources are gathered and arranged collectively to attain the business purpose (Smith, 2010). Likewise, the organizational design encompasses two vital aspects of the enterprise i.e. structural features and contingency factors. The structural facet is comprised of the internal elements such as organization size, hierarchy, infrastructure, IT, employees, suppliers and many more. While, the contingency factors are those aspects which influence the organization’s structural dimension like competitors, government, environment, technological developments, globalization, culture and etc. (Serra, Almeida & Ferreira, 2012). Hence, it is imperative for a company to monitor its design so that it can avoid entering the decline stage. Since organization exists in the business environment which is evolving at a fast pace, there are various external factors which can impact its business operations. For instance, a manufacturing concern which has been the leader in the industry for decades can enter into decline stage if it does not upgrade its machinery or fails to respond to the changing market needs. Similar to any product, the management team has to remain alert about the indicators which can show signs of an arising issue in the near future (Serra, Almeida & Ferreira, 2012). There are four crucial phases through which every organization passes i.e. birth/introduction, growth, maturity and decline. When a firm is at the maturity stage, it has to start developing plans for maintaining or revamping its image so that it can gain momentum again and retrieve back its enhanced performance level (Daft, 2013). The two foremost signs of maturity stage are

Monday, September 23, 2019

Compare and Contrast Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Essay

Compare and Contrast Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists - Essay Example They can specialize with regard to the situation and setting where they want to work that is whether in the emergency room or in acute care settings. They may also be specialized with regard to a particular pathology like cancer or some other disease. Other fields that they can choose include the type of health care which may be mental health or associated with psychotherapy. On the other hand a Nurse Practitioner is another field of nursing in which the nurses are assigned to work in different specialized settings. The main aim of the nurse practitioner is to provide the most basic healthcare to the patients. They can also opt for specializing in particular fields which include family health, health of the elderly or pediatric health. Psychiatric health is another optional field of specialization that is common to both the nurse practitioner and the clinical nurse specialist. The clinical nurse specialist and the nurse practitioners work in different health care organizations. The c linical nurse specialists are more associated with the hospitals as well as the community healthcare centers. They may also work in teaching institutions as well as in the offices. They can also be found in the psychiatric health care centers. The nurse practitioners are basically assigned to work with particular doctors and physicians. They may be found mainly in clinics and for outpatient health care departments for the patients. But they may also be found in hospitals. The Clinical Nurse Specialist and the Nurse Practitioner both acquire these positions after doing their masters degree plan. An interesting difference between the two of these fields is that a nurse practitioner is allowed to write out prescriptions whereas a clinical nurse specialist is not allowed to do so. If he wishes to prescribe than he must obtain a special permission for this purpose. Another major difference seen is that nurse practitioners are mainly seen to be working with physicians and doctors and they also need to have certificates from these physicians which specify the amount of authority that they have with regard to the healthcare services that they can provide. On the other hand, Clinical nurse specialists are mainly seen in organizations like hospitals and they have the work of supervising the nurses and assisting them in providing the best possible care to the patients. Also the Nurse Practitioner has a greater interaction and communication directly with the patients as they are a part of the outpatient departments and are involved more in basic health care facilities for the patients. On the other hand the Clinical Nurse Specialist works more in a hospital environment and has a lower interaction with individual patients. Clinical Nurse Specialists are also a part of associations and groups of nurses where they work together on joint programs and in collaboration with other nurses. They are also actively involved in teaching, in providing clinical advice, dealing with pat ients and are part of researches. Thus they have an all round goal of working in an effective manner to improve the healthcare facilities and provide quality care for the patients. The aim of the Nurse Practit

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Communication Strategies Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Communication Strategies - Coursework Example These differences in a workplace may cause many problems as attitudes and perceptions shape they way even formal communication takes place. A male boss may be very blunt and direct in his speech which may at a certain point offend a female subordinate than it would a male in the same place. Males also tend to be more interruptive and biases like these may lead for them to pay more attention to the point being made by a male subordinate as opposed to a female. Also the level of trust and intimacy in terms of work relation would be stronger with a male than with a female. On the other hand if a female were to be the boss a male subordinate would most likely question her superiority by throwing questions at her to test her skills. A female boss that is more aggressive in speech is almost always thought to be displaying an otherwise male characteristic and hence given names by subordinates and used as code language among the peers to refer to the boss. A male boss being aggressive and ev en cursing subordinates on the other hand would be thought of as normal. Females may also not be taken as seriously as their male counterparts and thought to be emotional and weak in certain cases. In such cases it becomes difficult for a task to be completed as the authority of a female boss might be questioned. Similarly in an interview situation or a group meeting male to female communication can display similar conflicts due to gender perceptions. An idea by a male might be given more importance than a female. These differences can not just lead to problems in being more expressive among males and females in a work place but may also cause serious delays in work or miscommunication of messages. 2) I agree that language has an effect on gender perceptions and hence elimination of sexist language may have a slow but positive effect on the attitudes and behaviors of people. The terms we use in everyday language has an effect on how we perceive the roles attached to us. These change s are slowly but steadily being incorporated into everyday language because it plays a key role in shaping people’s thoughts and ideas. Gender neutral terms in language are essential to overcome the bias that exists in society’s perception of males and females. I find racism and sexism to be similar biases. Hence, if the elimination of racism is emphasized on in all societies, it is fair to propagate the elimination of sexist terms from language that automatically deems inferior the status of one gender or excludes one from its representation. As an example, we can look at a manual for a workplace that keeps referring to the reader as a man or using â€Å"his† instead of using â€Å"them† for reference to the workforce. This automatically excludes a female worker and hence suggests that there are no women in the organization, whereas in reality, half the workforce might comprise of women and the manual maybe referring to them as much as it is referring to the male worker. Thus, replacing sexist terminology is important to get rid of gender biases in society and can have a positive effect on the attitudes of people who come across it. It will not just lead for women to be represented equally and give them confidence and credit but will also not automatically assign characteristics to one gender that can be

Saturday, September 21, 2019

A day in the life of a bike warehouse worker Essay Example for Free

A day in the life of a bike warehouse worker Essay It was six oclock and for the first time in about two years I woke up before my alarm went off. My curtains were not pulled right together so a stream of light was shining on my face. I sat up in bed and looked on my calendar to see what day it was; it was Monday, the first day of my work experience. I got myself out of bed and headed for the shower. The house was so still, every little sound I made seemed to be ten times loader than what it actually was. Like every other morning I had a wash and got changed then crept down stairs to the kitchen. I took a quick glance at the big clock on the wall but the batteries which were destined to run out had finally run flat. I had to find my phone, which Im constantly forgetting where I put, to know the time. I had put it by the cookery books so that I would see it and not panic like every other morning. It was six forty-five which left me fifteen minutes to grab some breakfast before leaving to do my normal everyday paper round. I took a look in the cupboard to find there was nothing worth having, probably a shopping day knowing my luck. I skipped breakfast and jumped on my bike and headed for the local paper shop. I knew that I had to be at the bike shop for my work experience at about nine oclock so I figured that I had to hurry up on doing my paper round. When I got the the shop, the shop owner, Paul, was waiting at the door with some bad news. The shop has two paper rounds one which I do and another which my friend David did. He gave me the good news that David had quit with no warning. Usually I would be excited about this because if I did both the paper rounds I would be paid double but the only downfall was I wasnt sure if I had enough time to do both the paper rounds. Anyway I put all the papers in the bag and did the most strenuous exercise I had done in a long time. It paid off though as that morning I witnessed the most beautiful sun rise. I finally got home, tired out and surprisingly quite cold. Looking at the clock on my mobile phone I had realised that I had been out delivering papers for one and a half hours, allowing me just thirty minutes to get ready and get the the other side of town. I quickly got changed into some suitable clothes and then made my way towards the town. On the way to the town I kept asking myself questions, what will I have to do? Will I be able to do the things which tom did last week? I wonder what the staff will be like? I managed to get myself really nervous about the whole idea of working with people I dont know and if I was really up for the job. I arrived at the shop ten minutes early so that I could introduce myself and get to know the staff a little bit. The main person in charge, Luke, set me off to do my first task which he said was the most important task off all. I was expecting to hear something to do with the bikes but instead he said I dont suppose you can run up to Aldays and grab use a pint of semi skimmed milk. It was when he told me to get the milk when I realised they were going to take advantage of me and make me do all the things which they didnt want to. Anyway, I was there to experience work and if thats what higher ranked staff do, and then thats what I was there to experience. When I came back to the shop with the milk Luke told me to follow him to the kitchen. The kitchen was a small, dirty and smelly room which was mainly used to store bike parts. The only thing that made it a kitchen was the fact that it had a small, filthy sink, a kettle and a bag of tea bags which my best mate Tom had brought in the previous week. In the kitchen were a number of large boxes which contained bikes. Luke pulled one into the middle of the room and asked me to build it in the kitchen whilst he went back to the till to repair some other bikes. This was the part I was dreading most of all, I had never built a bike from flat pack before and there I was expected to know how it all goes together. I opened the box and took a peep inside. The only way of describing what the bike looked like then was simply a box of bits. I took out everything and placed them in an orderly fashion across the floor. I was expecting to find a small booklet or leaflet with instructions on how to build the bike but there wasnt any. I didnt want the staff to know that I came to the bike shop not knowing how to build a bike so I decided to have a go at making it how I thought it went. The first main problem I came across was the packaging. Everything was really well packaged and taped up and all I had to remove it with was a small pair of very blunt scissors. I took a look at the parts in front of me and got cracking with making the bike. Most of the building was pure common sense but there were a few occasions where I had to take apart previous parts so that I could correct myself in places. Once I had finished making the bike I had to adjust the brakes and make sure that everything was in good order. There were lots of bare cable ends which I had to cover but unfortunately I caught the end of my finger on one of the thin cable ends leaving me in agony. I stood up, took a step back and looked at what I had done. I had made my first ever bike from scratch and I must admit, I thought I had done a very good job of it. I went out to find one of the staff members so that they could see if I had done everything ok. A young worker there called Steve came into the kitchen to check over the bike. I was biting my nails and gritting my teeth, hoping that I had done the job correctly. He was being very precise looking at every adjustment and checking that every screw was tight. He stopped what he was doing, leant the bike against the wall and said Well done, you can carry on with the rest of the bikes in the store room. I was so over the moon. I had taught myself a new skill which in the future could help me out. Now that my confidence was a lot better, I found I could make the bikes a lot quicker. I made a further three bikes each a bit different before Luke came into the room and told me that I deserved a lunch break. I took advantage of my break by jogging home and getting myself some lunch. When I came back to the shop I wanted to get straight back into it but there were other jobs that needed to be done. During my break a small lorry fully of ready and unready made bikes had arrived at the shop. With help from John, another employee of the shop, I removed all the bikes and boxes from the lorry to one of two cellars. Once the bikes were all down in the cellar I had the job of sorting them all out into different groups. I didnt really enjoy this much as the cellar was a dark, gloomy room with a not to pleasant smell in the air. I was happy to get out of there once I had finished sorting the bikes out. There was enough time to make a couple more bikes so I was sent back to the kitchen with my tools to make some more bikes from the store room. The radio wasnt too good as the aerial had broken off, so I found myself a tape which I could work to. The time really flew as my mind was in working mode. At three oclock Luke came back into the kitchen and checked all the bikes I had done. He was very impressed with what I had done and told me that I could go home. The room looked like a bomb had been set off in it so I cleared away all the tools I was using, put all the bikes I had built into stock and washed up the cups. I was now ready to go home. On the way out Luke said thank you for the work and said that he would discount me if I needed to buy any thing for my bike. I said good bye and went home. On the way home I thought about how my day had been. I realised that although I didnt originally want to work at the bike shop, it wasnt as bad as what I was expecting. In life youre not always going to get the jobs you want so I decided that for the rest of the week I was going to make the most of the experience.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Introduction To Social Media Analysis Marketing Essay

Introduction To Social Media Analysis Marketing Essay Introduction to Social Media Analysis People are talking about you-your company, your products, your people. With modern, digital communications tools, theyre publishing their thoughts to a worldwide audience. They write on blogs and in online communities, and they share pictures and videos on popular sites, such as MySpace and YouTube. Sometimes, the issues they raise show up on the front page of major newspapers. Paying attention to these online conversations is a new imperative for anyone who cares about their companys reputation. Social media analysis is the broad term for the services and tools you will use to pay attention. It incorporates monitoring, measuring and analyzing Internet-based social media, usually combining automated systems and human insight to turn raw data into useful information. Its most often used in marketing and communications/PR functions, which is why some people call it brand monitoring. But theres more to it than monitoring, and its not used only in marketing. Customer service, product groups, competitive intelligence, and investor relations-or any other relations function-will find useful information. Specialized applications for institutional investors, lenders and supply-chain managers are also available. If you use information, social media analysis opens vast new sources. Idea behind This Study: In Pakistan very few people are encouraging their businesses through social media marketing, mostly our internet usage went under the heading of ENTERTAINEMENT, so I want to study that where the actually person drive to while using Internet in Pakistan. How social media marketing can help us? How it is used, what are its advantages and disadvantages, how to build interest in it and those who are using and making money through it, how they are doing this? ABSTRACTS SAP A Company Transforms Itself Through Social Media This case study was written to demonstrate how a company can create a social networking platform that not only achieves its tactical goals of pushing company content to its target audience, but also broader, strategic purposes aligned with the companys corporate profile and brand. The study will look at technologies used to develop the SDN and the BPX networks, the quality of the user experience, and metrics achieved, as well as issues related to maintaining and growing the network. SAP, faced a new challenge. No longer was it content simply to be a developer of much of the worlds most successful business software. Instead, it wished to become a platform company, on its own Web-based platform solution: NetWeaver. That meant it had to open its platform to developers outside its own walls, who would drive innovative ways for businesses to use this platform to solve their business problems. It meant it had to talk to a huge, new audience that had not been part of its prior focus: developers across the globe that may or may not be SAP employees. Additional objectives included a desire to increase adoption of SAP products and to provide a platform of innovation for SAP and its partners. To obtain the main goal, SAP launches two new softwares for this called as SDN and BPX. Both networks are transparent, anyone can sign up, and both are searchable. Users can subscribe and obtain RSS feeds from the most popular bloggers, and all the content is accessible to social book-marking sites, as well as from Google and other search sites. SAP was formerly viewed as rigid, monolithic, and overly process-oriented but after adoption of Social Media it is now viewed as open and collaborative Methodology: Discussion Forums were opened up in Web page format where a rate of about 4,000 posts Per day was recorded. These were followed by blogs, initially contributed by employees, and quickly opened to outsiders. Active contributors include customers, consultants, and other opinion leaders, and the blogs feature everything from long-form essays on relevant topics to shorter bursts about future trends or interesting innovations. Conclusion Finally, the author speculates on how the success of the combined networks could lead to further revenue growth and enhancement of current corporate communications. How People Perceive Online Behavioral Advertising They performed a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with 14 subjects who answered advertisements to participate in a university study about Internet advertising. Subjects were not informed this study had to do with behavioral advertising privacy, but raised privacy concerns on their own unprompted. They asked, What are the best and worst things about Internet advertising? and what do you think about Internet advertising? Participants held a wide range of views ranging from enthusiasm about ads that inform them of new products and discounts they would not otherwise know about, to resignation that ads are a fact of life, to resentment of ads that they find insulting. Many participants raised privacy issues in the first few minutes of discussion without any prompting about privacy. They discovered that many participants have a poor understanding of how Internet advertising works, do not understand the use of first-party cookies, let alone third-party cookies, did not realize that behavioral advertising already takes place, believe that their actions online are completely anonymous unless they are logged into a website, and believe that there are legal protections that prohibit companies from sharing information they collect online. They found that participants have substantial confusion about the results of the actions they take within their browsers, do not understand the technology they work with now, and clear cookies as much out of a notion of hygiene as for privacy. They also found divergent views on what constitutes advertising. Industry self-regulation guidelines assume consumers can distinguish third-party widgets from first-party content, and further assume that consumers understand data flows to third-party advertisers. Instead, we find some people are not even aware of when they are being advertised to, let alone aware of what data is collected or how it is used. Methodology: A series of in-depth qualitative interviews with 14 subjects were conducted. A modified mental models protocol of semi-structured interviews were followed using standard preliminary questions for all participants while also following up individually to gather participants understanding of and reaction to behavioral advertising in particular. Conclusion Consumers have a very clear understanding of when and where Google search displays advertisements. However, consumers do not understand which parts of the New York Times website are advertisements. They lack the knowledge to distinguish widgets from first party content. Consequently, it is overly optimistic to believe consumers know their data flows to widget providers as a first party. THE VALUE OF A FACEBOOK FAN: AN EMPIRICAL REVIEW As Facebook matures as a viable marketing and customer service channel, many organizations are looking to quantify and understand the impact of their overall marketing investment on their business. Quantifying the Return on investment (ROI) of Facebook marketing efforts includes multiple variables and companies often fail to understand and to properly value their efforts in terms of the potential long-term business benefits of the Facebook channel. Many brands overcomplicate their measurement requirements by tracking dozens of independent variables. Many oversimplify by trying to apply a single number concept of value, and far too many fail to quantify ROI in such a way as to convince a CFO of the merit of increasing or shifting investment towards Facebook marketing. Syncapse has adopted a unique approach to understanding the financial returns that social members on Facebook provide to a business. Facebook fan ROI can be understood though a knowledge of key performance indicators that have traditionally led to increased sales and profit in business and the key differences between Facebook users who have opted to fan a brand and those who have not. This study will examine the five leading contributors to Facebook fan value. (1) Product Spending (2) Brand Loyalty, (3) Propensity to Recommend, (4) Brand Affinity and (5) Earned Media Value. Methodology The quantitative research for this Syncapse undertaking was conducted in conjunction with Hotspex Market Research and consisted of a 25-minute survey using their online panel. Data was collected from over 4,000 panelists across North America in June 2010. Conclusion As growing audiences migrate to social networks like Facebook, a brands ability to connect and influence these customers must shift from traditional marketing strategies. Facebook fans represent a significant opportunity to drive revenue enhancement, brand, and loyalty without incurring the considerable cost-per-person of conventional marketing. More importantly, such Facebook strategies allow for a discernable ROI that is not allowed by most other approaches. Fans are an extremely valuable segment of the Internet audience and should be addressed with specific strategies to nurture their ongoing participation and influence. Unlike traditional campaign-based marketing, Facebook-based marketing through well crafted fan utilization has no defined shelf life and can be more readily integrated into the day-to-day operation of the enterprise. Social Media Use in the United States: Implications for Health Communication Given the rapid changes in the communication landscape brought about by participative Internet use and social media, it is important to develop a better understanding of these technologies and their impact on health communication. The first step in this effort is to identify the characteristics of current social media users. Up-to-date reporting of current social media use will help monitor the growth of social media and inform health promotion/communication efforts aiming to effectively utilize social media. The purpose of the study is to identify the sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with current adult social media users in the United States. Methods: Data came from the 2007 iteration of the Health Information National Trends Study (HINTS, N = 7674). HINTS is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey on health-related communication trends and practices. Survey respondents who reported having accessed the Internet (N = 5078) were asked whether, over the past year, they had (1) participated in an online support group, (2) written in a blog, (3) visited a social networking site. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of each type of social media use. Conclusions: Recent growth of social media is not uniformly distributed across age groups; therefore, health communication programs utilizing social media must first consider the age of the targeted population to help ensure that messages reach the intended audience. While racial/ethnic and health status-related disparities exist in Internet access, among those with Internet access, these characteristics do not affect social media use. This finding suggests that the new technologies, represented by social media, may be changing the communication pattern throughout the United States. DELIVRABLE II Introduction Billions of people create trillions of connections through social media each day, but few of us consider how each click and key press builds relationships that, in aggregate, form a vast social network. Passionate users of social media tools such as email, blogs, microblogs, and wikis eagerly send personal or public messages, post strongly felt opinions, or contribute to community knowledge to develop partnerships, promote cultural heritage, and advance development. Devoted social networkers create and share digital media and rate or recommend resources to pool their experiences, provide help for neighbors and colleagues, and express their creativity. The results are vast, complex networks of connections that link people to other people, documents, locations, concepts, and other objects. New tools are now available to collect, analyze, visualize, and generate insights from the collections of connections formed from billions of messages, links, posts, edits, uploaded photos and videos , reviews, and recommendations. As social media have emerged as a widespread platform for human interaction, the invisible ties that link each of us to others have become more visible and machine readable. The result is a new opportunity to map social networks in detail and scale never before seen. The complex structures that emerge from webs of social relationships can now be studied with computer programs and graphical maps that leverage the science of social network analysis to capture the shape and key locations within a landscape of ties and links. These maps can guide new journeys through social landscapes that were previously uncharted. Social network analysis is the application of the broader field of network science to the study of human relationships and connections. Social networks are primordial; they have a history that long predates systems like Facebook and Friendster, and even the first email message. Ever since anyone exchanged help with anyone else, social networks have existed, even if they were mostly invisible. Social networks are created from any collection of connections among a group of people and things. In the twenty-first century, network science has blossomed alongside a new global culture of commonplace networked communications. With widespread network connectivity, within just the past few decades, billions of people have changed their lives by creatively using social media. We use social media to bring our families and friends closer together, reach out to neighbors and colleagues, and invigorate markets for products and services. Social media are used to create connections that can bind local regions and span continents. These connections range from the trivial to the most valued, potent collaborations, relationships, and communities. Social media tools have been used successfully to create large-scale successful collaborative public projects like Wikipedia, open source software used by millions, new forms of political participation, and scientific collaboratories that accelerate research. Unheard of just a few years ago, today systems such as blogs, wikis, Twitter, and Facebook are now headline news with social and political implications that stretch around the globe. Despite the very different shapes, sizes, and goals of the institutions involved in social media, the common structure that unifies all social media spaces is a social network. All of these systems create connections that leave traces and collectively create networks. The rise of social media Social media are visible in the form of consumer applications such as Facebook and Twitter, but significant use of social media tools takes place behind the firewalls that surround most corporations, institutions, and organizations. Inside these enterprises employees share documents, post messages and engage in extensive discussions, document annotation, and create extensive patterns of connections with other employees and other resources. Social media tools cultivate the internal discussions that improve quality, lower costs, and enable the creation of customer and partner communities that offer new opportunities for coordination, marketing, advertising, and customer support. As enterprises adopt tools like email, message boards, blogs, wikis, document sharing, and activity streams, they generate a number of social network data structures. These networks contain information that has significant business value by exposing participants in the business network who play critical and unique roles. Some employees act as bridges or brokers between otherwise separated segments of the company. Others have patterns of connection that indicate that they serve as sources of information for many others. Social network analysis of organizations offers a form of MRI or x-ray image of the organizational structure of the company. These images illuminate the ways the members of the organization are actually structured in contrast to the formal hierarchies. Individual Contributions Generate Public Wealth Collections of individual social media contributions can create vast, often beneficial, yet complex social institutions. Seeing the social media forest, and not just the trees, branches, and leaves, requires tools that can assemble, organize, and present an integrated view of large volumes of records of interactions. Building a better view of the social media landscape of connection can lead to improved user interfaces and policies that increase individual contributions and their quality. It can lead to better management tools and strategies that help individuals, organizations, and governments to more effectively apply social media to their priorities. However, dangerous criminals, malicious vandals, promoters of racial hatred, and oppressive governments can also use social media tools to enable destructive activities. Critics of social media warn of the dangers of lost responsibility and respect for creative contributions, when vital resources are assembled from many small pieces [1]. These dangers heighten interest in understanding how social media phenomena can be studied, improved, and protected. Why do some groups of people succeed in using these tools while many others fail? Community managers and participants can learn to use social network maps of their social media spaces to cultivate their best features and limit negative outcomes. Social network measures and maps can be used to gain insights into collective activity and guide optimization of their productive capacity while limiting the destructive forces that plague most efforts at computer-mediated communications. People interested in cultivating these communities can m easure and map social media activity in order to compare and contrast social media efforts to one another. Around the world, community stakeholders, managers, leaders, and members have found that they can all benefit from learning how to apply social network analysis methods to study, track, and compare the dynamics of their communities and the influence of individual contributions. Business leaders and analysts can study enterprise social networks to improve the performance of organizations by identifying key contributors, locating gaps or disconnections across the organization, and discovering important documents and other digital objects. Marketing and service directors can use social media network analysis to guide the promotion of their products and services, track compliments and complaints, and respond to priority customer requests. Community managers can apply these techniques to public-facing systems that gather people around a common interest and ensure that socially productive relationships are established. Social media tools have become central to national priorities requiring government agency leaders to become skillful in building and managing their communities and connections. Governments at all levels must learn to optimize and sustain social media tools for public health information dissemination, disaster response, energy conservation, environmental protection, community safety, and more. Background to the Problem Billions of people now weave a complex collection of email, Twitter, mobile short text messages, shared photos, podcasts, audio and video streams, blogs, wikis, discussion groups, virtual reality game environments, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to connect them to the world and the people they care about. Twitter enable short exchanges ideal for efficiently pointing out resources or knowing what conferences people are attending, while discouraging in-depth discussion and analysis on the platform itself. In contrast, traditional blogs without length limitations and with their support for sharing multimedia content and comments are better suited for more in-depth presentations and conversations. Other media including books, newspapers, wikis, email, social networking sites, and so forth each have a set of properties that create a unique terrain of interaction. Learning to effectively meet your objectives using social media requires an understanding of that terrain and the social practices that have grown up around its use. One of the most exciting aspects of online social media tools is that they produce an enormous amount of social data that can be used to better understand the people, organizations, and communities that inhabit them. More specifically, they create relational data: information about who knows or is friends with whom, who talks to whom, who hangs out in the same places, and who enjoys the same things. Social Media Design Framework Social media systems come in a variety of forms and support numerous genres of interaction. Although they all connect individuals, they do so in dramatically different ways depending in part on the technical design choices that determine questions like these: Who can see what? Who can reply to whom? How long is content visible? What can link to what? Who can link to whom? Social media services vary in terms of their intended number of producers and consumers. An email is usually authored by just one person, whereas a wiki document is likely to be authored by several or even hundreds of people. An individually authored email might be sent to just one other person or be broadcasted to thousands. More generally, social media tools support different scales of production and consumption of digital objects. Many social media tools help individuals or small groups interact. Instant messaging (IM), video chat, and personal messaging within general-purpose social networking sites provide intimate communication channels comparable to phone calls and face-to-face office meetings. Social media can help individuals reach out to medium-sized groups of friends or acquaintances by broadcasting a personal message (e.g., a tweet sent to a users followers on Twitter; a post sent to a departmental email list) or allowing others to overhear a comment (a post to someones Facebook wall). They can also allow individuals to reach large groups through popular blog posts, podcasts, videos posted on sites like YouTube, or updates on Twitter by companies or celebrities with numerous followers. Purpose of the Research Thousands of people are earning huge amount of money through Social Media, This research will help to understand that when one person enters into social media, what is his path and where does he go? This Research will also help to understand that how can a person earn from a particular social network website. Research Questions To understand the pattern of browsing of individuals using social media network. To check the awareness among the people of earning through social media. How an individual can earn through Social Media in Pakistan? How this pattern can be used to gain maximum output in online advertising. DELIVERABLE III Medium of Research Social Network Theory Social network analysis is the application of the broader field of network science to the study of human relationships and connections. Social networks are primordial; they have a history that long predates systems like Facebook and Friendster, and even the first email message. Ever since anyone exchanged help with anyone else, social networks have existed, even if they were mostly invisible. Social networks are created from any collection of connections among a group of people and things. Social network analysis helps you explore and visualize patterns found within collections of linked entities that include people. From the perspective of social network analysis, the treelike org-chart that commonly represents the hierarchical structure of an organization or enterprise is too simple and lacks important information about the cross connections that exist between and across departments and divisions. In contrast with the simplified tree structure of an org-chart, a social network view of an organization or population leads to the creation of visualizations that resemble maps of highway systems, airline routes, or rail networks Network analysts see the world as a collection of interconnected pieces. Those studying social networks see relationships as the building blocks of the social world, each set of relationships combining to create emergent patterns of connections among people, groups, and things. The focus of social network analysis is between, not within people. Whereas traditional social science research methods such as surveys focus on individuals and their attributes (e.g., gender, age, income), network scientists focus on the connections that bind individuals together, not exclusively on their internal qualities or abilities. This change in focus from attribute data to relational data dramatically affects how data are collected, represented, and analyzed. Social network analysis complements methods that focus more narrowly on individuals, adding a critical dimension that captures the connective tissue of societies and other complex interdependencies. Once a set of social media networks has been constructed and social network measurements have been calculated, the resulting data set can be used for many applications. For example, network data sets can be used to create reports about community health, comparisons of subgroups, and identification of important individuals, as well as in applications that rank, sort, compare, and search for content and experts. The value of a social network approach is the ability to ask and answer questions that are not available to other methods. This means focusing on relationships. Although analysts, marketers, and administrators often track social media participation statistics, they rarely consider relationships. Traditional participation statistics can provide important insights about the engagement of a community, but can say little about the connections between community members. Network analysis can help explain important social phenomena such as group formation, group cohesion, social roles , personal influence, and overall community health. Significance of Research Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic. There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again. If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time. (Maki, 2007) Limitations Following are the issues which could be faced during the research: Lack of awareness of utilizing social media among people in Pakistan. No prior research available. DELIVERABLE IV LITERATURE REVIEW Social Media Marketing Social media marketing is the way of promoting your business or sites through different social media channels and it is an effective plan that will surge traffic to your sites, get more links and grasp the attention of people. It is one of the low cost website or product publicity method. It grasps more number of visitors, some of whom may repeatedly visit the website. If you are in a business which deals with selling products or services, then social media marketing is one of the effective ways that will make your site profitable over a period of time. Those who do not know the worth of social media sites fall into three different categories (1) the one who do not anything about social media marketing (2) one who are interested and do not know to use the social media (3)the one who do not have confidence in the worth that a social media marketing can bring in. Why Social Media? Nowadays Blogs are even ranked higher than the static websites because of their relevant content and their fresh thoughts which meet the searches criteria to come on top positions. The more links you have the better your site will be ranked by search engines. When your website receives more natural permanent links, it builds more authenticity of your site and builds search engine trust on your website. This helps to get ranked even with competitive keywords. social media is a essential tool for promoting your site and its really a worthy method to get into fame. (1)Social media marketing helps you to get more natural links to your site and your website is exposed in front of more people which helps yo to drive more traffic on your website. (2)Its a dependable method, if you utilize it properly and successfully, social communities help you to drive traffic more than the previous amount traffic you received from the search engine. (3) Social media marketing is a community based marketing method, and this doesnt harm several other methods that drive traffic to the websites regularly Social media marketing helps to get famous all around the globe. Social media sites includes online communities, social networks, blogs, wikis and another type of media for marketing, sales and customer support.. The different types of social media marketing tools include facebook, orkut, hi5, twitter, Linkedin, blogs, YouTube and Flickr. The social media marketing acts as a cheapeest method of advertising. It is seen that social media marketing acts as one of the leading business venue to use. Nowadays business technology buyers participate more socially to promote their business. Building a attractive website may take more amount of time and efforts. Getting ranked in search engine can take years, in order to build a competitive position. Social media marketing helps you to get huge amount of traffic in a single day. Once you become aware of social media tools the it would be easy for you to grab audience and to satisfy their needs. The fast growth of Social Media Marketing shows the future of internet in social media marketing. The major players in the social media market may revolutionize themselves in course off time and online business peoples also have to change their trends according to it. With social media marketing you can easily compete with the counterparts and attain the end in concern. The Value of Marketing through Social News Websites For those who dont understand or see the value of social media websites, lets take a look at the benefits of creating viral content and effectively promoting them through social media channels. Developing link baits and successfully getting it popular on various social media websites like Digg and StumbleUpon will lead to multiple benefits for any website: Primary and Secondary Traffic. Primary traffic is the large amount of visitors who come directly from social media websites. Secondary traffic is referral traffic from websites which link to and send you visitors, after they come across your content through the social sites. High Quality Links. Becoming popular on social news websites like Digg or Reddit will get you a large number of links, some of which

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Jefferson and Blake Writers of the Enlightenment and the Romantic Era :: Free Essays

Jefferson and Blake Writers of the Enlightenment and the Romantic Era The Enlightenment and the Romantic Era are two periods that differed greatly. Out of these contrasting eras came different literary styles and purposes. Thomas Jefferson and William Blake are two primary examples of diverse authors from equally diverse eras. Although the Romantic Era grew alongside the Enlightenment, it placed value on emotion or imagination over reason, where as the Enlightenment focused on reason and logical thinking. Unlike the Enlightenment, Romanticism allowed people to get away from the constricted, rational views of life and concentrate on an emotional and sentimental side of humanity. This not only influenced political doctrines and ideology, but was also a sharp contrast from the Enlightenment’s embracing of rationality before emotion. Jefferson and Blake both representing their own era through different writing styles that characterized the era in which their writings belong. Along with Enlightenment came European struggle with the monarchy. This led to ideas of a self-governed people and, along with the separation of individuals from religion and government, would inevitably influence Thomas Jefferson’s writing of The Declaration of Independence. The beliefs in equality, justice, and morals were outstanding ideas from the Enlightenment that moved Jefferson to write in the instructive manner in which his purpose was to lead a group of people to believe in â€Å"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.† The Enlightenment influenced Jefferson’s writings and was responsible for his instructive writing style. William Blake’s writing style was a product of the Romantic Era in which people were more concerned with emotions than reason. This era embodied society’s desire to give in to its passions and express its feelings. In Blake’s â€Å"The Lamb,† he questioned â€Å"who made thee {lamb}† and then answered â€Å"little lamb God bless thee.† Blake personified the little lamb with â€Å"clothing of delight† and a â€Å"tender voice.† The comparison of the lamb and its creator through imagery and personification characterizes the Romantic Era as a whole.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategy Essay -- Internet Marketing

Broad Markets Goals (monthly) Exposures Conversion Rate Conversions ATV 900K .1% 4 $750 Top 3 Sites Website Impressions Traffic Visitor Profile Demographic Segmenting Facebook.com 100,000 About 124M Methodical Spontaneous -18-52 years old -Male & Female Twitter.com 100,000 About 27M -College student or graduate -Income $28-$100k+ -Any ethnicity -Interested in starting a business or developing business marketing Linkedin.com 100,000 About 60M Ad Formats The ad format for broad marketing will be static images. All three websites will use the same image for branding consistency and so that each campaign can be easily calculated. The image will have a brand heading, message describing the promotion (10% off), and the same call to action. These variables will be changed monthly to calculate the effectiveness. The imagery will be simple and the text will target startup and small to medium sized businesses. Messaging Strategy The messages’ main objective is to spread brand awareness and to present WebCom Marketing’s website and design solutions, along with a promotion, and a call to action. The solutions will include: marketing management, online advertising, and marketing agency solutions. The messaging will target methodical visitors by emphasizing WebCom Marketing’s as an alternative solution to having in-house marketing costs, and WebCom Marketing’s expertise. Separate messages will target spontaneous visitors by providing last minute solutions for businesses. Main Goals of Ad Exposures The main goal of the ad exposure is to consistently create similar brand awareness across each broad marke... ...isitors are more likely to search for more universal terms than non-brand specific terms. Once the visitor has landed on the landing page, they are now considered a conversion. Other results that will be measured are the landing page’s ability to retain the visitor, the call to action’s ability to capture the visitor, and other notes about the visitor’s behavior. Special Offers and Incentives SEO discounts will be similar to the other campaigns’ 10%, initially, and it will be recorded by the means of number of clicks, and filling out the specific form, or providing the promo number over the phone. The offers on the landing pages and mediums used will include a expiration term to support acting quickly. Visitors Conversions Revenue Cost Discounting Percent Cost/Revenue Ratio 675 7 $5,063 $3,500 10% 79.14% Summary of Projected Revenue and Costs (monthly)

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Catcher In The Rye :: essays research papers

Summary "The Catcher in the Rye" is a story of a young sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden is telling this story in first person. Holden is a student of Pency Prep an all boys school in Pennsylvania. The book starts in a rest home in California. Holden flashback to four days before the beginning of Christmas vacation. Holden is going to pay a visit to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. Mr.Spencer is sick in bed suffering from the grippe. While there Mr.Spencer talks to Holden about his poor grade on his last examination paper. That Saturday Holden and his friend Mal Brossard, who is on the wrestling team , go to see a movie. They invite Ackley out of sympathy because he never does anything Saturday night. After the boys finnish playing pinball. Holden goes back to his room to write a composition for his roommate Stradler. When Stradler comes back from his date with Jane Grallagher, a girl that Holden has a crush on, he doesn't like the composition. Holden and Stradler argue, then Holden punishes Stradler. Holden loses the fight. Holden goes to Ackleys room to talk, but Ackley doesn't want to talk so Holden leaves to look for Mal Bossard. Holden starts to pack his bags after he decids not to look for Borssard. He walks to the train station because it is too late for a taxi. While there he cleans off the blood from the fight with some snow. He catches a train to New York. On the train he meets a woman who is the mother of one of his classmates. Holden is attracted to the women so he starts to lie about himself. When he arrives in New York he get a room in the Edmont Hotel. Holden is thinking of staying in the hotel until Wednesday when he can go home. It is still Saturday night and Holden is bored so he goes to the club in the hotel. The waiter will not serve him alcohol. At the next table there are three women who are giggling at him. Holden asks the ladies to dance. Holden find out that the ladies are from Seattle, Washington. After the ladies leave the club Holden gets bored because there are no drinks are and no girls, so he leave. In the lobby he sits down in a chair and thinks about Jane Gallagher.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Effects of Broken Family to Students Essay

Family is the basic components of the society. And the parents are the most important source of youth’s behavior, which effect to their outlook in life. A home is where a family lives. It may be alternated to the word ‘house’ but a house is more appropriately referring to the material structure, whereas ‘home’ refers to the intangible things that bind together the family members. The Family is an essential factor for a human’s whole-being, everything about a man, his background, attitude, all of his achievements, his honor and dignity, relies on the structure of the family a man lives in with. A family is composed of a father a mother and their offspring, bonded by their love for each other. Here in the modern age a family could be two things, complete or broken. A broken family is believed to be a cause of a child’s mislead in life, some people give it as the main reason of the rebellious and unclear acts of a person. Meanwhile school is another factor which molds us on becoming a good person. Separation, family problems and misunderstandings from the family are the major causes of single – parent or broken families. see more:having relationship while studying Good relationship of parents to their siblings may build a strong relationship and a strong relationship with their family can develop the behavior of a person. The behavior of a person can also affect by the relationship of their family. A person who comes from broken family will have different behavior on their social well-being. The parents have a special role in the behavior of a person. Here in the Philippines, most of the students come from broken family with a single parent. Many of them feel sad. Sometimes they can’t explain to their self or to others why they feel that way. When they saw a happy family they feel depressed moods seems to arise from within. They depression feels unpleasant, inconvenient, and unacceptable. Some of the VMA Global College students come from broken family as well. This research helps the reader to understand the role of good relationship of parents on the behavior of a student. Broken Family can affect the behavior of a student. But the students who come from broken family have different behavior and different principle in life. It also show us the different ways of the respondents on how they overcome their situation.

Human digestion Essay

The salivary glands are the first to react in the digestive process, which are usually triggered by either the sight or the smell of food. Food enters the digestive tract through the mouth where the teeth, tongue, and salivary glands help moisten and break down the food within minutes. The food then becomes something called a bolus, which will travel through the pharynx, then through the esophagus, and into the stomach. As the food travels through the pharynx the epiglottis is in place to prevent food from entering the lungs. Once the bolus enters the stomach it is broken down with acid secretions. The food is partially digested within the stomach. The bolus then becomes chyme (a semiliquid food). Chyme usually leaves the stomach during a time frame of 2-6 hours. The small intestine is where most of the digestion and nutrient absorption takes place with the help of secretions from the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. The small intestine consists of three parts: the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum. Anything that is not absorbed in the small intestine then enters the large intestine travelling through the sphincter. The sphincter prevents any of the remaining food from re-entering the small intestine. The large intestine is made up of two major parts: the colon and the rectum. The colon aids in the absorption of leftover water, vitamins, or minerals. Anything left over after this process is considered waste product (feces) and is then excreted from the body via the anus, which is attached to the colon. Reference Human Digestion Activity. Retrieved August 21, 2009 from http://corptrain.phoenix.edu/axia/sci241/sci241-digestivetract.html

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Life †Religion Essay

In my opinion, there is no specific meaning of life. There also is a part of me that thinks that life really doesn’t have a meaning at all. But, since I have to try to define life, I would have to say it’s a combination of things in your life that you are living for, or the purpose of you being on this earth. Everyone most likely has a different purpose for being alive. Whether it is family, school, or your career; those things have a lot of impact on your life and also decisions that you make throughout life. In our society, many families instill faith and morals early into their children’s lives by continuing traditions or practices of religious faith. The idea of faith and moral beliefs are instilled in a person by attending or participating in church activities and reading the Bible or other religious texts. When there is a sound moral foundation in a person’s life it may give them the motivation through faith to build a sound structure for their life or to achieve personal goals. Simply put, a person may believe through faith that it is possible to achieve an education, start a family, or to have a successful business or career because of their foundation in faith. The reason why I somewhat think that life really doesn’t have a meaning, is because no matter what anyone does or how well or righteous someone lives their life, in the end they still die. What happens after that? Nothing, you never come back nor will you have any recollection of what went on during your lifetime here on earth. A person can bust their behind in working doing good for the community and everything else and in the end you still end up in the same place as everyone else, good people or bad people, you die. Another reason why I believe life doesn’t have a meaning is because all of the people in this world have to suffer, they still go through pain, they have to watch loved ones die, they still have to go through heartache, and rough times. Being poor, homeless, and not having food for as single meal in the day. Where is the meaning in life when people have to wake up hungry or worry about where they will lay their head that night? I’d say there is none when you look at it from that perspective. In my opinion, the meaning of life is too complex for the human brain to comprehend. People tend to say that they know what the meaning of life is, but who really knows the answer. There are various opinions and schools of thought, however, most people can never and will never reach a clear understanding of what the meaning of life is. If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. †? Viktor E. Frankl. Frankl could not have said this quote any better, most people can say that they have found meaning in their life but at the same time, there are some people wondering if the only reason they are on this earth is to suffer on a daily basis throughout their entire lives.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

1% of Local Police Departments

Reflections from the One-Percent of Local Police Departments with Mandatory Four-Year Degree Requirements For New Hires: Are They Diamonds in the Rough? Diana Bruns Bacone College ***Contact information Diana Bruns, Ph. D. Department Chairperson and Professor, Criminal Justice Studies Bacone College 2299 Old Bacone Road Muskogee, OK 74403 [email  protected] edu cell: 918-781-7295 office: 918-781-7295 **Diana Bruns is the Department Chairperson and Professor of Criminal Justice Studies at Bacone College in Muskogee, OK.Reflections from the One-Percent of Local Police Departments with Mandatory Four-Year Degree Requirements For New Hires: Are They Diamonds in the Rough? Abstract Countless studies have permeated the literature regarding the utility of a bachelor’s degree for police officers. Local law enforcement agencies with mandatory four-year degree requirements serve as the population for this study relative to the current status of college degreed officers, as well as pop ulation demographics and commonalities among such departments.The utility of college degree requirements, choice of academic discipline and why four-year degree requirements nationwide are merely a preference, not a standard mandatory hiring requirement is discussed. Current minimum educational requirements for local and state police agencies and implications for the future of the college-degreed officers are explored. Hiring college-educated candidates in the law enforcement field does not guarantee they will be good officers.Being a police officer is hard and to be successful, you have to want to be a police officer. Individuals who receive the required degree in law enforcement have demonstrated their desire. Desire is something very hard to evaluate, but such an important trait. If all other qualities are equal—the college graduate with a four-year degree in criminal justice or related field should be hired as police officers before one who doesn’t have the degree. Police Chief from department with mandatory degree requirement Introduction and Background The relevance of a college degree for police officers has been debated for decades. Numerous studies have been conducted regarding the importance of the degreed officer, while others have described how a college degree is not an essential or important ingredient for success among police officers. That precise debate—the worth of the bachelor’s degree for police officers is not the focus of this endeavor.The focus here is central to three vital panels’ recommendations from 1967-1974 proclaiming that police officers obtain baccalaureate degree—the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, and the American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice—and why so few local and state police departments have followed suit in requiring tha t police officers hold baccalaureate degrees, as less than 1% of such departments require a four-year degree (Hickman and Reeves, 2006).It is evident that leaders in law enforcement are hesitant to embrace the educational movement. Roberg and Bonn (2004) reiterated the nearly nonexistent numbers of police departments requiring degrees. Although leaders in law enforcement continue to hesitate the implementation of educational requirements (Carlan, 2007; Roberg and Bonn, 2004; Breci, 1997;Remington, 1990), recruitment for college graduates continues to increase. Carlan (2007) examined the worth of the criminal justice degree as valued by police officers and found that In this study, police officers (n=299) with varying levels of experience and riminal justice education revealed positive attitudes concerning the degree’s value with regard to conceptual development for employment purposes. The positive assertions in this study reflect well on the ability of criminal justice progr ams to prepare its clientele for meaningful employment challenges (p. 616). Johnston, Cheurprakobkit, and McKenzie (2002) revealed that law enforcement administrators stressed that the role of education should place importance in aiding police officers with knowledge of the legal aspects of policing as well as report writing, ethics, and procedures.The President’s Commission (1967) reported that without higher educational requirements, quality in police services could not be achieved or attained. However, over forty years later, in 2009, although most police agencies do report that they prefer a college-degreed officer, the majority of police agencies (local, state and special jurisdiction) do not require anything more than a high school diploma or equivalent. Upon reviewing 36 departments that require a four-year degree, this exploratory analysis attempts to reveal and explore the reasoning behind the small number of police departments actually requiring the degree.Results o f this analysis will describe the departments with four-year mandatory degree requirements and characteristics of such departments will include opinions of police chiefs regarding why a college degree is important to police. Qualitative explanations will yield information regarding how explemplary practices of a few departments should serve as role models and guides for departments across the nation in the one-hundred year quest to professionalize the policing field. As the literature suggests, police administrators do prefer police officers to hold a baccalaureate degree, but do not require it.Verrill (2007) called for the need to determine why the select one-percent of local police departments who require the degree actually do so. This study attempts to answer that question. As stated previously, debates pertaining to the usefulness and value of a college degree for police officers have been commonplace in criminal justice literature for decades. However, at the outset, it is unc lear how many police departments actually require a four-year degree and the location of such departments. This lack of clarity is further exemplified by ncertainty as to how many police officers and police agencies there actually are the in U. S. , leads to difficulty in counting police agencies (Maguire, Snipes, Uchida, and Townsend, 1998). Whatever the case, we can be assured that few police agencies (non-federal) actually require a bachelor’s degree. Is the Type of Degree Important? Verrill (2007) described the sparse amount of literature concerning the advantage or worth of a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and whether criminal justice employers give preferentiality to vocational over theoretical degrees or vice versa.Verrill’s study reviewed entry-level educational requirements for criminal justice agencies in Florida, where only two local police departments out of N=261 sampled required a bachelor’s degree. Realistically, Verrill’s sam ple is indicative of local police departments nationwide, as less than one-percent require a bachelor’s degree as a prerequisite for employment. It is unclear at this point, from the literature, whether those one-percent of police departments who require four-year degrees specify which discipline they prefer.This analysis reveals striking information regarding the few police departments that require the degree and their preferences regarding the discipline as well as if they prefer that police candidates have degrees pertaining to either vocational or theoretical orientations. Bostrom (2005) addressed differences in levels of performance and work habits among officers who had obtained Bachelor of Arts degrees and Bachelor of Science degrees, finding that officers with Bachelor of Arts degrees have better work habits (measured by sick time usage, traffic collisions, discipline) than officers with a Bachelor of Science degree.Although results were detailed with caution, as this was an exploratory study at one large police department, Bostrom called for future research in this area. Schafer and Castellano (2005) attempted to extricate the relationships that subsist among work experience, educational background and attitudes toward criminal justice education, once again finding, â€Å"the quality of police service will not significantly improve until higher educational requirements are established for its personnel† (p. 300). Research Questions 1. What is currently known about educational requirements for local and state police departments/agencies? 2.How many police departments (local) have a four-year degree requirement and where are those departments? Who makes up the one-percent of police departments that the literature refers to as requiring four-year degrees? What is the range in size of police departments that have the four-year degree requirement? Are they large departments or small departments? 3. How many departments that have the four-year degree requirement will waive the requirement, and under what conditions can the educational requirement be waived? 4. What are the education levels of chiefs of police in departments that have a four-year degree requirement? . What are the mean starting salaries for the departments that require a four-year degree? Are the starting salaries for police officers in police departments with four-year degree requirements higher than salaries for police officers in departments without four-year degree requirements? 6. Do police chiefs in departments with four-year degree requirements prefer that officers have a degree in criminal justice? 7. Do police chiefs in departments with four-year degree requirements have a preference of vocational (hands-on) orientation rather than an academic (theoretical) orientation? . Have applicant pools increased, decreased or stayed the same since their four-year degree requirement was mandated? 9. Do the police chiefs believe the degree requirement will c hange in time, or will it remain a mandate, with no exceptions? 10. Regarding police departments with the four-year degree requirement, why does their respective department require a four-year degree? 11. Regarding police departments with the four-year degree requirement, why do police chiefs believe so few departments across the nation actually require the degree?Current Knowledge About Educational Requirements for US Police Departments According to the U. S. Department of Justice (2004), there are 12,766 local police departments with 3,067 sheriff’s offices, 49 primary state law enforcement agencies, 1,481 special jurisdiction agencies, and 513 ‘other’ agencies totally 17,876 law enforcement agencies. As of 2003, in a sample of 3000 police departments, 98% of local police departments had an educational requirement for new recruits; 18% had ‘some type’ of college requirement; ine percent required a two-year degree and less than one-percent required a four-year degree (Hickman and Reaves, 2006). Another source, The International Association for Chiefs of Police (2008) announced that 16% of state police agencies require a two-year degree, while four-percent require a four-year degree; 13% of county police agencies require a two-year degree and an unknown percentage of county police agencies require a four-year degree. Nine percent of local police departments require a two-year degree and two-percent require a four-year degree.However, it was unclear the name and location of the departments that required a two or a four-year degree. Furthermore, it is unclear as to where that two-percent was derived. Overall, scarce information is available regarding which departments require a two or a four-year degree. By searching state police agency and state highway patrol websites, it is evident that only three state police departments require officers to hold four-year degrees—Illinois State Police, New Jersey State Police, and Nort h Dakota Highway Patrol. All three agencies, however, will waive educational requirements.Regarding the New Jersey State Police’s minimum qualifications, An applicant must have (1) a bachelor’s degree, signifying completion of the undergraduate curriculum and graduation from an accredited college or university or, (2) alternatively, an associate’s degree or have complete 60 college credits from an accredited college or university, plus at least two years of satisfactory employment, or (3) alternately, have completed 30 college credits from an accredited college or university, plus at least two years of active duty military service with an honorable discharge (http://www. jsp. org/recruit/qual. html). The Illinois State Police has the following minimum educational requirement: Option 1). An Associate of Arts Degree or equivalent coursework and must meet one of the following two job experience requirements: Three consecutive years of continuous, full-time service as a police officer, with the same police agency or three consecutive years of active military duty. Option 2). An Associate Degree of Science or equivalent coursework and meet one of the following two job experience requirements: three onsecutive years of continuous, full-time service, as a police officer, with the same agency or three consecutive years of active military duty. Option 3). An Associate of Applied Science Degree, only if the degree is in Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice and meet one of the following two job experience requirements: Three consecutive years of continuous, full-time service as a police officer, with the same agency, or three consecutive years of active military duty. Option 4). A Bachelor’s Degree (https://www. illinoisstatetrooper. om/requiremnents. html). Lastly, North Dakota Highway Patrol’s minimum educational requirements are: An Associate degree with two years of work-related experience or a Bachelor’s degree (http://nd. gov/n dhp/employment/qualifications. html). Upon review of each state police or state highway patrol website, the following requirements by state were revealed: presently, ten states require an Associate’s Degree or 60 hours of college credit (PA, TX, KY, MN, MO, OK, DE, CN, WI, LA). The remaining states require a high school diploma or equivalent.However, one state– Nevada, stipulates no educational requirement. Out of the 100 largest cities in the United States, only four police departments require a four-year degree (Jacksonville, FL, Arlington, TX. , St. Paul, MN, and Tulsa, OK). Upon looking at the 100 largest police departments in the United States by number of sworn officers (list provided by the Police Executive Research Forum), only 3 of the largest police departments require a four-year degree (New Jersey State Police, Illinois State Police, and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office).After reviewing each of the 100 largest cities websites, it was determined that 67% of such departments require a police officers to have a high school diploma or equivalent; 6% require a high school diploma plus 12 hours college credit; 4% require between 30-40 hours of college credit, 19% require an Associate’s degree or 60 hours of college credit, with 4% requiring a four-year degree.Again after searching agency websites regarding career opportunities, the percentages were similar upon reviewing the largest 100 departments by number of sworn officers: 68% required a high school diploma or equivalent; 4% required a high school diploma or equivalent plus 12 hours of college credit; 4% required between 30-54 hours of college credits; 21% required an Associate’s degree of 60 hours of college credit, and 3% of the 100 largest police departments (by number of sworn officers) currently require a four-year degree.Once again, even the few that require the degree; the majority will waive the requirement, with certain stipulation—which will be discuss ed. To estimate whether or not the one-percent of police departments with degree requirements were actually large or small departments necessitated reviewing the LEMAS report (2003), concluding that Seventy-four percent (74%) of all local police departments served fewer than 10,000 residents, these agencies employed just 14% of all offices. About half of all officers served a jurisdiction with 100,000 or more residents.While departments serving the largest cities had thousands of officers on average, those serving fewer than 2,500 residents have an average of just four full-time employees, including three sworn officers. The Arguments: Pros and Cons of the College-Educated Police Officer The idea surrounding the purpose of college-educated officers has stemmed from two sources: the alleged importance of professionalism for the police force and to change officer attitudes (Shernock, 1992). Friedmann (2006) made an excellent point,When police officers try to do their job today without a degree, their already difficult task is made more difficult. However, chiefs who mandate the degree requirement should be aware that the transition period—where the police department does not already have a clear majority of officers with degrees—could be difficult. Police officers sometimes resist higher education requirements. Despite this resistance, police officers need higher education for the good of the profession† (p. 23). Chief of Police Hawkins (2006) reiterated his department’s four-year requirement in Burnsville, MN. ,Burnsville’s four-year degree requirement helps recruit big-picture thinkers who are creative, culturally aware, and technically sound in constitutional law, and who look for the best solution to the multitudes of challenges they encounter. An officer’s well-rounded background enhances his or her ability and desire to partner with community members, use the vast resources both the residents and business owners pos sess, and make them part of the problem-solving process. The synergy created between the community and the officers is the basis foundation of Burnsville’s community policing efforts. Friedman, 2006, p. 28). As the debate over the need for an educated police officers has demonstrated contradictory evidence concerning college educated police officers—meaning that although many studies are supportive that officers need a college education, there is also conflicting evidence. Baro and Burlingame (1999) disputed recommendations that officers need a baccalaureate degree to increase levels of police professionalism, stating that officers need no more than a high school diploma or equivalency.Sherman and McLeod (1979) speculated that higher education for officers may be irrelevant because the education officers receive in higher educational institutions is quite similar to training officers receive in police academies. Critics of higher educations believe the â€Å"college-e ducated officers are more likely to become frustrated with their work, with restrictions imposed by supervisors, and with limited opportunities for advancement† (Worden, 1990, p. 567). Hudzick (1978) found that officers with an education place less value on obedience to supervisors and are less satisfied with their careers.Other are concerned that â€Å"college-educated officers will quickly tire of the irregular hours, constant pressures, and relative low pay of policing† (Varricchio, 1988, p. 11). Whetstone (2000) acknowledged that, â€Å"hiring candidates with improved credentials also invites eventual problems such as greater job dissatisfaction and personnel turnover† (p. 247). Kakar (1998) further demonstrated that a college education might decrease officer’s quality of service because police work does not offer opportunities to stimulate the college-educated mind.Furthermore, because police performance measures differ in studies, no real consensus e xists on exactly how police performance should be defined and measured. Carter and Sapp (1990) indicated that regardless of degree requirements, 23% of police officers had obtained a four-year degree and 65% of police officers had at least one year of college. Peterson (2001) gave somewhat higher estimates, in that 30% of police officers sampled from ten medium-sized departments in the Midwest had four-year degrees.Mayo (2006) estimates between 25-30% of police officers have a four-year degree, which realistically nearly mirrors the percentage of U. S. population over age 25 who have obtained a bachelor’s degree. According to the US Census Bureau (2005) 28% of the US population over the age of 25 has obtained a bachelor’s degree, which is an all-time high. Common sense dictates that those percentages of police officers with four-year degrees are representative of the education levels of the communities they serve, if we utilize such figures and that line of reasoning.H owever, the small number of departments requiring degrees necessitates attention to raise awareness to the fact that less than 100 police departments, including special jurisdiction police, state police, county and local police departments mandate degrees, and whether this will change in the future. Little information exists regarding the 1% of police departments that require the four-year degree. Mayo (2006) revealed several case studies of departments with four-year degrees regarding the question of the degree and its importance to the sites’ organizational success in the communities they serve.One of the departments that was highlighted, the Dover Police Department in N. J. , which is now the Toms River Police Department, has changed its language to relax its mandatory four-year requirement, the current ordinance: requires candidates to possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university or, the candidate must possess a minimum of 64 college credits combined with two (2) full years of military experience or full time work experience (http://www. rpolice. org/Recruitment. html). Other than a list of departments that require four-year degrees recently made available on-line by the Police Association for College Education, no other list is available to reveal the one-percent of police agencies that require the four-year degree. Unfortunately, many of the departments listed on that site that have a four-year degree requirement no longer have the requirement, but have relaxed it or waived it all together.After contacting all of the departments by email or phone, the following departments on PACE’s list no longer require a four-year degree: Vallejo, CA. ; Boulder, CO. ; Peach Tree, GA. ; Holden, MA. ; St. Cloud, MN. ; Eagan City, MN. ; Borough of Gettysburg, PA. ; Edinboro, PA. ; Appleton, WI. ; Flint, MI. ; Milford, MI. ; Montvale, NJ. ; University Park, TX; Whitefish Bay, WI; and Upper Moreland, NJ. The Chief of Police, Tho mas Nestle, III. , of Upper Moreland, NJ, responded via email that Upper Moreland only requires 60 hours of college credit.Nestel (2009) offered his opinion, via email, as to why the degree requirements was relaxed at his department, The applicant pool that is suited for this position frequently does not possess the educational pedigree you describe (a four-year degree). Law enforcement tends to draw military veterans and sons/daughters of existing officers. Neither group has a high rate of college graduates. Recruiting on college campuses has proven to be very unsuccessful. Policing doesn’t seem to be an appealing direction for the college graduate.In recent years, other departments (Memphis, TN, Plano, TX, Portland, OR) once known to have had a four-year degree requirement, further made national headlines regarding the choice to relax their respective educational requirement. Interestingly, many other police departments were found that were not included in the Police Associ ation for College Education’s (PACE) list regarding police departments that require four-year degrees as of 2006. A massive Internet search was undertaken to locate local police departments that currently require a four-year degree for new patrol officers.Additionally, numerous contacts via telephone to police chiefs and recruits were attempted to uncover additional police departments with four-year degree requirements. However, most of those attempts were unsuccessful for little knowledge exists as to whom the police departments requiring four-year degrees actually were in the U. S. Therefore, it was necessary to rely on departmental websites in attempts to discover who indeed mandated the baccalaureate degree requirement. Problematically, many departmental websites lacked clarity regarding educational requirements.Therefore, if relevant information could not be obtained via websites, many telephone contacts to police departments led to the discovery of 60 local police depar tments, including local police departments and county sheriff offices that require a four-year degree for police officers. However, there are several special jurisdiction police agencies that also require officers to hold a baccalaureate degree and will not waive educational requirements, including the Missouri Department of Conservation (law enforcement) and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.However, special jurisdiction police agency degree requirements are not the focus of this analysis. Sixty police agencies (local and county) were unearthed to indeed have the requirement–Illinois has the greatest number of police departments requiring a four-year degree, with eleven; New Jersey has seven; Ohio has eight; Pennsylvania has six; Michigan has 5; Texas has four; Wisconsin has 4; Colorado has 3; South Carolina has 2; Florida has 2; Minnesota has 2; Oregon, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Missouri each have one local police department that has a four-year degr ee requirement.Special jurisdiction police agencies aside, caution however, that of those 60 police departments, only 37 will not waive or relax their educational requirements for any exception. Therefore, there are 37 local police departments that will not waive their educational requirements on any grounds. Table 1 contains the 37 local departments that will not waive educational requirements. Population size, gathered from Sperling’s Best Places (www. bestplaces. net) follow to demonstrate the size of each city in which the respective department is located.Regarding county police departments, population size was not included. Table 1 Note: N=37. This may not be the complete list. However, no other such list is available. Simple computations reveal the Mean for the population size of local police departments with mandatory degree requirements is (X=61,911), with the Median (MD=31,891). Due to the reality that there are so few local police departments mandating degrees, it i s relevant to include examples of specific educational requirements for such departments regarding their policy regarding mandatory four-year degree education requirements in Table 2.Local Police Departments Requiring Four-Year Degrees, No Exceptions Police DepartmentLocationPopulation Size Arvada Police DepartmentCO104,838 Arlington Police DepartmentTX367,197 Bethel Park Police Department PA 31,891 Bloomfield Township Police Department MI 65,796 Canfield Police Department OH 7,061 Centerville Police Department OH 23,046 Cleveland Heights Police Department OH 47,097Deer Park Police Department TX 29,748 Burnsville Police Department MN 59,321 Eatontown Police Department NJ 14,022 Elgin Police Department IL 98,846 Gaston County Police Department NC Flint Township Police Department MI 32,753 Green Tree Borough Police Department PA 4,396 Lakewood Police DepartmentCO140,024 Leonia Police DepartmentNJ 8,799 Mahwah Police DepartmentNJ 24,560 Middleburg Heights Police DepartmentOH 15,237 Mt. Lebanon Police DepartmentPA 5,481 Multnomah County Sheriff’s DepartmentORNaperville Police DepartmentIL140,633 Norton Shores Police DepartmentMI 23,429 Novi Police DepartmentMI 52,621 Owasso Police DepartmentMI 15,388 Palatine Police DepartmentIL 66,596 Platteville Police DepartmentWI 9,748 Pueblo Police DepartmentCO103,730 Peters Township Police DepartmentPA 4,683 Richmond Heights Police DepartmentMO 9,228 Schaumburg Police DepartmentIL 73,890 Smithfield Police DepartmentRI 21,863 South Park Township Police DepartmentPA 14,647 Strongsville Police DepartmentOH 43,347 Sugar Land Police DepartmentTX 79,943 Tulsa Police DepartmentOK385,486 Wheaton Police Department IL 54,611Wilmette Police Department IL 26,737 Table 2 Examples of Educational Specification Per Department That Have Mandatory Four-year Degree Requirements PoliceEducational Requirement Specification Department Arvada PDâ€Å"Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university (final semester seniors are eligible). This requirement will not be waived for any reason† (http://arvadapd. org/join-our-team/requirements/. html). Arlington PDâ€Å"Possess a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Education is not waived for prior military service or prior experience† http://www. rlingtonpd. org/index. asp? nextpg=recruiting/require. asp). Centerville PDâ€Å"Bachelor’s Degree Required† (http://ci. centerville. oh. us/index. php? option=com). Deer Park PDâ€Å"Bachelor’s degree by hire date† (http://www. ci. deer-park. tx. us/department/index. php? fDD=15-0 Eatontown PDâ€Å"Effective September 1, 2008, applicant must have a bachelor’s degree, signifying completion of the undergraduate curriculum and graduation from an accredited college or university† (http://www. nj. com/police/careers. html).Lakewood PDâ€Å"Bachelor’s degree in any discipline—no exceptions† (http://www. ci. lakewo od. co. us/index. cfmp). Tulsa PDâ€Å"Applicants must have completed a Bachelor’s degree with a C+ average or better at an accredited college. No military hours or credits are acceptable unless they are received from or converted through an accredited college† (http:/www. tulsapd. ord/recruiting/requirements. htm Note. This is not an exhaustive list. Examples of Specific Educational Requirements Per Departments Regarding Mandatory Four-Year Degree Education Requirement, With Waiver ExceptionsAs stated previously, only 37 local police departments require a four-year degree with no exceptions allowed. However, 23 other local police departments require a four-year degree, but will waive the requirements with certain exceptions, as do the Illinois State Police and the New Jersey State Police. Therefore, those 23 departments with similar wording or language embedded in their respective specific job requirements or career opportunities containing ‘require a four-year degree, but will relax requirements,’ will be included in departments that require four-year degrees.The Toms River Police Department provides a good example of ‘waiver exceptions,’ The current ordinance requires candidates to possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university or the candidate must possess a minimum of 64 college credits combined with two (2) full years of military experience or full-time regular police experience† (http://www. trpolice. org/Recruitment. html). Other specific examples of police department requirements with waivers include: Charleston Police Department, Bachelor’s degree and above or Associate degree with four years of prior law enforcement experience or military experience† (http:www. charlestoncity. info/dept/content. aspx? nid=817&cid=9931). Coral Springs Police Department’s requirements are similar, â€Å"Applicant must possess: A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited c ollege or (4) years law enforcement experience and at least 60 credits from an accredited college, or (4) years military experience and at least 60 credits from an accredited college† (http://www. theblueline. com/feature/Flcoralsprings. html). Other examples include: 1.Highland Park Police Department â€Å"Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university—consideration may be given for applicants who possess at least 60 credit hours† (http://www. hptxorg/index. aspx? page=233). 2. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office â€Å"Must possess a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or possess an accredited Associate’s degree or equivalent (60 semester hours/90 quarter hours) with four (4) years prior active military or law enforcement experience or possess 90 semester/135 quarter hours with two (2) years prior active military or law enforcement experience† http:www. coj. net/Departments/Sheriffs+Office/About+ the+JSO/default. htm). 3. Livonia Police Department â€Å"Have been awarded an Associate Degree in Law Enforcement or Public Administration or a Bachelor Degree in any non-Criminal Justice discipline† (http://www. ci. livonia. mi. us/default. asp? area2=departments%2Fcivil+service) 4. Osh Kosh Police Department â€Å"Associate degree—In Criminal Justice/Police Science; Bachelor degree—in any field† (https://wilenet. org/html/employment/showopportunities. jsp). 5. Tinley Park Police Department All applicants must have completed 2 years satisfactory experience as a certified sworn law enforcement officer in the state of Illinois or posses an Associates Degree with at least a C average (or its equivalent) with an emphasis in criminal justice, or possess 60 college credit hours with at least a C average (or its equivalent) with an emphasis in criminal justice, or possess a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree from a four year college or university† (http:www. tinleyparkpolice. org/police. html).Haddon Township Police department is another that was included in the list of police departments that require a four-year degree, however, their exception has somewhat different specifications: â€Å"Applicants must make a pre-employment agreement to achieve a Baccalaureate Degree within eight years from the time of employment. † (http://www. haddontwppolice. com/). Table 3 includes Police Departments that require four-year degrees, with exceptions or waiver conditions. Table 3 Police Departments that Have Four-Year Degree Requirements, With ExceptionsPoliceLocation Departments Bath Police Department OH Bainbridge Township Police Department OH Charleston Police Department SC Cherry Hill Police Department NJ Coral Springs Police Department FL Haddon Township Police Department NJ Highland Park Police Department TX Hinsdale Police Department IL Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office FL Langlade County Sheriff’s Department WI Livonia Poli ce Department MI Kettering Police Department OH Montgomery Township Police Department NJ Osh Kosh Police Department WIPlano Police Department TX Richland County Sheriff’s Office SC River Forest Police Department IL Shaler Police Department PA St. Paul Police Department MN Tinley Park Police Department IL Toms River Police Department NJ (Formerly Dover PD) Vernon Hills Police Department IL Willowbrook Police Department IL Note. N=23. Methodology Regarding the 1% of local police departments that require a four-year degree at the time of hire, it was noted previously that little information exists about the location of such departments.Intensive Internet searches, email and telephone contacts with multitudes of police recruiters and chiefs yielded 60 departments with four-year degree requirements, although only 37 of such departments had mandatory educational requirements resulting in no educational waivers. As it was unclear which department had mandatory requirements at the ou tset, 45 questionnaires were mailed to police chiefs at departments, which were believed to have mandatory requirements.Of those 45 questionnaires mailed, 40 were completed and returned–which was an excellent overall response rate of nearly 89%. Four of those surveys revealed that the departments surveyed did not require the four-year degree requirement; therefore, the results were not utilized. Thirty-six (36) returned questionnaires remained, revealing both important and relevant information about departments with mandatory requirements and were the subjects for this study. Thirty-seven (37) departments overall were found with mandatory requirements.Items on the questionnaires pertained to a wide range of subjects including the year in which such departments implemented their degree requirement; number of sworn officers; the chief’s education level; mean starting salaries for police officers; whether or not police chiefs had a preference in degree discipline; whether the chiefs preferred their officers had degrees that were vocational or theoretical in nature; whether chiefs preferred bachelor or arts degrees over bachelor of science degree; if officers who were hired before the degree requirement was established were required to complete respective degrees; whether they believed the degree requirement would be altered in the future; if applicant pool had increased, decreased or remained the same since the establishment of the degree requirement; the requirement’s impact on minority recruiting, and whether police chiefs believed officers with a college degree perform better than officers without a college degree.Additionally, two questions qualitatively regarding why police chiefs believed their respective departments had the mandatory requirement and why police chiefs believe only 1% of other departments have followed suit in mandating the requirement. Although glaring limitations to this analysis stem from the fact the little informati on exists regarding the reality of those one-percent of police departments that mandate a four-year degree, this is an exploratory step enabling further exploration into this important issue. Ultimately, the future professionalism of the policing field does hinge on raising degree requirements across police departments in America. Although only 36 police chiefs were surveyed, their information speaks volumes as to the need for other departments to follow their lead.As one chief eloquently stated: It is evident that society has become more complex. Problem solving skills along with communication skills are even more important today for police officers. A college education gives a foundation and more importantly legitimizes police work as a profession The instrument utilized has not proven reliable. However, this began a process of raising issues regarding the importance and the future of the college-degreed officer. At the outset, many officers are obtaining four-year degrees regardl ess of whether the degree is required or not. Results Information regarding the analysis of data is organized according to the research questions.For each question, the results are followed by an explanation and discussion of the findings. Only descriptive statistics were utilized, as there was no need for making inferences in this analysis. Eleven research questions were addressed in attempts to determine how departments that require four-year degrees are different from departments that have the requirement, and will waive it, or do not have such requirements. Descriptive data from the surveys revealed that the first department implemented their mandatory degree requirement in 1963. One chief responded, Our degree requirement was implemented in 1990. We changed the entry-level minimum educational requirement from a high chool diploma to a bachelor’s degree over the course of seven years. Research indicates police agencies should require a four-year degree. Table 4 describes the year departments implemented their mandatory degree requirement, with a range from 1963-2008. Table 4 Frequencies and Percentages for the Year Degree Requirements were Implemented Year Degree Requirement Implemented f% 1963 12. 8 1969 38. 3 1975 25. 6 1976 12. 8 1981 12. 8 1984 12. 8 1986 38. 3 1987 12. 8 1990 4 11. 1 1991 12. 8 1992 1 2. 8 1993 12. 8 994 12. 8 1995 12. 8 1996 12. 8 1997 25. 6 1998 38. 3 2000 12. 8 2005 12. 8 2006 1 2. 8 2008 12. 8 Note. N=36 It was apparent from the literature that only three of the largest police departments (by sworn officer) required a four-year degree. Tulsa Police Department is the largest department in this study, with 844 sworn officers. However, Tulsa is not the norm regarding departments with degree requirements and number of sworn officers, as results will show that most police departments with degree requirements have less than 100 sworn officers.However, of the 36 respondents in this particular study, the range of number of sworn of ficers was 15 at the smallest department to 844 sworn officers at the largest department included. The mean number of sworn officers was 127. 20 (SD=171. 46, MD=70). Table 5 illustrates the frequencies and percentages of sworn officers in departments with mandatory degree requirements, demonstrating that most of the departments with the requirement have fewer than 100 sworn officers; 16 departments have fewer than 50 sworn officers. Table 5 Frequencies and Percentages of Number of Sworn Officers in Departments with Mandatory Degree Requirements Number of Sworn Officers f % 1512. 8 2025. 6 2112. 8 212. 8 2512. 8 2712. 8 2912. 8 3112. 8 3412. 8 3725. 6 4012. 8 4312. 8 4612. 8 4812. 8 5412. 8 7025. 6 7212. 8 7412. 8 7512. 8 9812. 8 10312. 8 11225. 6 13712. 8 16012. 8 16512. 8 18912. 8 20012. 8 20512. 8 28212. 8 34012. 8 61512. 8 84412. 8 Note. N=36. Regarding the police chief’s level of education, Table 6 contains the frequencies and percentages associated with levels of educati on broken down into five categories: Associate’s Degree, Bachelor’s Degree; One Master’s Degree; Multiple (2) Master’s Degree’s, and Doctorate Degree. One of the departments where the chief had an Associates degree, the mandatory requirement was implemented in 1981.Furthermore, in all 36 departments surveyed, no officer was on the force without a degree before the educational mandate has implemented was required to obtain a four-year degree. In essence, the grandfather clause was utilized. The same was true with the chief’s who did not meet the degree requirement, as they were not required to meet new degree requirements. Table 6 Police Chief’s Level of Education in Departments with Mandatory Four-Year Degree Requirements Degree Type Earnedf% Associate’s Degree25. 6 Bachelor’s Degree 10 27. 8 One Master’s Degree 22 61. 1 Two Master’s Degrees12. 8 Doctorate Degree12. 8 Note.N=36 Regarding the mean starting s alaries for the departments that require a four-year degree, the mean starting salaries for police officers in police departments with four-year degree requirements are higher than salaries for police officers in departments without four-year degree requirements. City data was additionally gathered (www. bestplaces. net) regarding median household income for the 37 original locations of departments with mandatory degree requirements. The median household income for city residents pertaining to this sample was $61,330. According to the U. S. Census Bureau (2008) the median household income reached $50,233 in 2007.Therefore, it was likely that mean starting salaries for police officers in these locations would also be higher. According to one police chief surveyed: It’s all about tradition, size of city and location. The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics On-line (2006) states that the mean starting salary for police officers ranging from populations from 10,000 to over 1,000,000 was $38,569. As shown in Table 7, the mean starting salaries for police officers in police departments with mandatory four-year degree requirements was quite higher. A striking example of this is illustrated in one chief’s words, Thirty-nine percent of our residents over the age of 25 have an advanced collegiate degree.Our population is 27,000. Our residents are university professors, attorneys, medical doctors, CEO’s. Our village is considered upper class economically and home values are quite high. Many well-known people live here. Our police officers are comfortable inter-acting in our residents’ homes, even on the most sensitive matters. We don’t feel inferior. We belong here. Our residents value us. The four-year degree requirement helps us significantly in recruiting. We provide an average of more than 100 hours of training annually to our officers. Our ‘brand’ is that we are the ‘education and training’ departmen t. This has been very effective for us. Table 7Means and Other Statistics Concerning Salaries for Police Officers in Departments With Mandatory Four-Year Degree Requirements Starting Salary Mean $47,222 Median $46,786 Mode $40,000 SD $6,024 Minimum $34,901 Maximum $58,931 Note. N=36. Only two of the departments surveyed required that officer possess a four-year degree in Criminal Justice or Law Enforcement. It is common that police departments requiring Associate’s degrees are specifically looking for their police candidates to have an Associate’s degree in Criminal Justice or a closely related field. However, upon surveying police chiefs in departments with mandatory four-year degree requirements, only seven or 19. 4% preferred criminal justice or closely related degrees. Seventy-five ercent (75%) of police chiefs in this study believed that a four-year degree in any discipline was acceptable. Two police chiefs in this sample were uncertain as to whether they preferre d a criminal justice degree to a degree in any other discipline. When asked whether the police chiefs preferred a practical/vocational degree or a degree that was theoretical/academic in nature, or if they had no preference, the majority (63. 9%) of chiefs had no preference–either orientation was acceptable, stating that was precisely the four-year degree in itself that mattered. Table 8 illustrates the frequencies and percentages of practical versus theoretical orientations. Table 8Frequencies and Percentages of Degree Orientation Preference: Practical v. Theoretical Degree Orientation Preferencef% Prefer practical/vocational orientation822. 2 Prefer theoretical/academic orientation411. 1 No preference, either acceptable 2363. 9 Uncertain 1 2. 8 Note. N=36. The results of this study lend little support either way to Bostrom’s (2005) finding. Although several police chiefs could break down the percentage of their officers who had a Bachelor of Arts degree or Bachelor o f Science degree, only one respondent believed that officers with a Bachelor of Science perform better than officers with a Bachelor of Arts degree.Seventy-five (75%) or 27 police chiefs believed there is no difference in work habits or performance regarding whether an officer has a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. The remaining respondents (25%) were uncertain as to whether there was a true difference among the types of degree. Whatever the case, a common theme emerged, We believe the quality of our officers and the services provided are enhanced by a better-educated workforce. Policing is an extremely complex profession, requiring individuals who can apply abstract concepts within difficult situations. We can also assign more complex duties to our officers. Table 9 reviews the police chief’s opinions regarding the future of the degree requirement, and whether they believed it would be altered in the future.It was clearly apparent that in these departments, th e degree requirement is a fixed quality. Table 9 Chiefs’ Opinions Regarding the Future of Their Degree Requirement Future Expectations f% Expect to retain requirement Indefinitely3391. 7 Expect requirement to be altered In future 2 5. 6 Uncertain 1 2. 8 Note. N=36. We hope to keep our degree requirement forever. With the high percentage of college graduates in today’s society, I don’t believe this requirement is unreasonable. It’s our goal to continue to pursue the ‘most qualified’ applicants for our police department. Many police departments are hesitant to adopt a mandatory educational requirement due to fears that applicant pools will dwindle if requirement is enforced.According to this sample, nearly 64% of police chiefs reported that their respective applicant pools have indeed decreased due to their educational mandate. However, others felt different. The four-year degree requirement has served us well. We typically receive about 70 app licants for every 1-3 openings we try to fill. All of which have the four-year degree and either enrollment or completion of the police academy. Another responded in a way to overcome the issue of lower applicant pools, cautioning a reason why this will not happen at large, Yes, the requirement decreases this applicant pool. In my opinion, for a department to have an educational requirement such as ours, a strong recruitment effort is necessary.We recruit over 15 northern Ohio colleges that have law enforcement majors programs to get an adequate number of participants to take our civil service tests. That is an expensive endeavor, one that most cities won’t make. † Table 10 reviews police chief’s opinions regarding application pools and their particular educational requirement. Table 10 Stability of Application Pools in Police Departments with Mandatory Four-Year Degree Requirement Level of Police Applicants f% Application pool has increased With degree requireme nt25. 6 Application pool has decreased With degree requirement 23 63. 9 Application pool has stayed the same 10 27. 8 Uncertain 12. 8 Note. N=36.One of the predominant reasons offered as to why more police departments do not have a mandatory degree requirement is that enforcing such a mandate would have a negative impact on recruiting. One chief replied, it’s ‘politically correct’ to lower education standards to avoid the wrath of the special interest-minority groups who wish to lower educational standards to increase the minority population in the applicant pool. Table 11 describes frequencies and percentages of police chiefs’ opinions regarding their requirement’s impact on minority recruiting. Interestingly, only 11% of respondents believed the requirement had a positive impact on recruiting minorities.Two interesting responses emerged regarding the process of calming the regarded negative impact on recruiting: If I can keep the requirement a few more years, we will have a majority of officers with degrees and there will be less internal pressure to lower standards. As long as we hire a significant percentage of minorities, there will be less claims of adverse impact—nine are female, five are Hispanic. We will evolve to the point that candidates for promotion with degrees are more likely to get the appointment. Lack of applicant pool and minorities. While this is true, it can be overcome. We have fewer applicants, but they are higher quality. Our recruitment methods continually change to reach our target audience. We work with many minority groups to reach out to minority populations. One respondent was adamant regarding this issue,The minority community that believes there would be an ‘adverse impact. ’ There isn’t. Table 11 Requirements Impact on Recruiting Minorities Level of Impact f % Requirement has had a positive Impact on recruitment of Minorities411. 1 Requirement has had a negative impac t on recruitment of minorities1027. 8 Requirement has had no impact on recruitment of minorities1130. 6 Uncertain 1130. 6 Note. N=36. Another important issue addressed concerns that highly relevant debate: Does a college degree make for a better police officer? The answer to that question among the 36 police chiefs was not unanimous, but the majority (80. 6%) indeed believed that officers with a degree perform better.In efforts to once again address this century-old debate, Table 12 describes the realities of police chiefs’ opinions on this theme. Table 12 Do Officers with a College Degree Perform Better? Police Chief’s Opinions f% Yes, officers with a degree perform better2980. 6 No, officers with a degree do not perform better 411. 1 Uncertain 3 8. 3 Note. N=36. In an attempt to dig deeper into the above issues and subjects, a qualitative approach was utilized to uncover themes predominant to this analysis. Although important descriptive information has been revealed , few attempts have been taken to qualitatively explore the two important issues relevant here—opinions of police chiefs from that one-percent of police departments with mandatory degree requirements.Herein, two final questions needed exploration: Why do their departments actually have their mandatory degree requirement and why they believe so few departments actually require the degree? After careful thought and consideration, they shared their opinions and beliefs—those of which should be held in high regard, as they are the select few who have shown to be pioneers in their concrete efforts to bring about professionalism to the policing field. Police Chief’s Explanations as to Why Their Respective Departments Have the Four-Year Degree Requirement Aside from stern recommendations encouraging police administrators and community leaders to adopt educational standards,Our department adopted the requirement based Carter, Sapp and Stephens findings and the recommend ations of the 1967 Presidential Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals that said that a four-year degree should be required by all law enforcement by 1981 six themes emerged from analyzing the data regarding why these departments actually have the degree requirement. 1. It is our tradition and part of our institutional, organizational and community culture and we are valued. It’s our tradition. We are the only agency in the state that still requires a four-year degree. We have always required this and I believe we hire exemplary people with more maturity and a strong sense of direction than those without the degree. It’s really a huge part of our culture. We hope to keep our four-year educational degree requirement forever.With the high percentage of college graduates in today’s society, I don’t believe this requirement is unreasonable. It’s our goal to continue to pursue the ‘most qualified’ applicants for our dep artment One of the best things I did 17 years ago was to convince the governing body to pass the four-year degree requirement. Since then the department has hired 140 of our 160 officers (bright, educated and professional). After becoming Chief in 1992, I felt strongly that this would have a very positive impact on the department and it has. Very well-respected, very few discipline problems or concerns. 2. The degree carries with it a level of expertise, knowledge and perseverance that represent us in our communities well.The requirement for a bachelor’s degree generally assures that an applicant can read and write; has been exposed to complex written materials requiring some level of analysis; has developed some level of critical thinking and communication skills, and has achieved at least some measurable relatively long-term goal in their lifetime. A bachelor’s degree limits the number of applicants who, most probably, would not be selected anyway. It also increases the quality of the applicant pool (education-level wise), which makes for a better police officer and increases the minimum age of the applicants, making them more experienced in life. It also shows that you have people at the very least, had the ‘stick-to-it-ivness’ to persevere through four years of college. It also eliminates the need for education reimbursement for officers pursuing bachelor’s degrees. We believe that it provides us with a more mature, well-rounded and worldly candidate who has more experience interacting with many different people from all walks of life† 3. Education levels of the police force should mirror the education level of the communities they serve. To reflect the demographics of the community we serve. According to the Census, Wilmette has one of the highest education levels in America. We want to be representative of those we serve in race, gender, education level and foreign language. This is also a successful strategy for m aintaining high salaries and benefits. We wanted to ensure our police officers’ education level closely mirrored the education level and demographics of our community. Over 70% of adult residents in our community have a bachelor’s degree. 4.A belief in excellence and quality—the degree makes a difference in performance. The department instituted this educational requirement in 1993 due to the belief that educated officers will be better decision makers and have better communication skills, both in oral and written form Department belief of excellence—higher quality of service to community, being leaders in profession Quality candidate, self-thinking and less supervision. Enhanced knowledge, skills and abilities as well as communications skills (oral and written); critical thinking and analytical skills; broader viewpoints; more tolerant; foundation of criminal justice concepts; self-discipline; and time management.We believe that a better educated work-fo rce is necessary in dealing with the public and are higher educated. We also believe that education enhances communication skills which are necessary in police work. A higher educated person is a more rounded individual, which leads to a better police officer To have a better qualified work force 5. A belief that the mandatory degree promotes professionalism both in their communities and for the entire police field. We believe that this should be the standard if we are to continue to develop and promote a professional police organization Academics have pushed our department to a new level of professionalism and innovationTo significantly improve the quality of police services via intelligent, articulate and professional personnel To establish professional standards at entry-level We are located in a city with a university with a strong criminal justice program. We have several members of our police and fire commission who are affiliated with the university. The four-year degree requ irement enhances our professionalism. 6. Officers with a college degree are more mature and have stronger goal- reaching abilities. I feel that a person demonstrates his/her desire to be a police officer by completing four year of study in criminal justice. They prove not only a strong desire to become a police officer, but possess the ability to set a goal and achieve it.It also demonstrates that ability to learn. That is why a four-year bachelors degree in criminal justice, criminology or law enforcement exists. It is specific to those who set a goal for law enforcement and achieve it. Increases odds of mature/smart candidate. Maturity, dedication, experience and age of applicants are more suitable for employment. Police Chief’s Explanations as to Why They Believe So Few Departments in the U. S. Actually Require a Four-Year Degree Only three out of the 36 police chiefs surveyed stated that they were not satisfied with their department’s educational policy. However, o ver 90% were satisfied with their departmental policies requiring college degrees.Aside from the following two realities many police leaders encounter–one being that the college degree is not mandated as a requirement by most licensing boards, and it may be prevented because of civil service regulations–five themes emerged regarding police chiefs explanations as to why they believe so few departments actually require degrees: 1. It’s all about money and over-all job satisfaction that one perceives a college-degree should bring. We have issues retaining officers and we frequently lose them to higher paying positions outside the field of policing. University instructors, technical school instructors, social work have all been attractive to our officers.Governments are reluctant to pay the higher wages for an applicant with a degree. Most agencies cannot pay adequate salaries for advanced degrees. Higher degreed people are not satisfied being a police officer. Mone y. Most departments cannot afford to start our a patrol officer at what a college graduate could make It certainly can hurt the applicant pool, depending on the salary Possibly they believe their pay-rates are not high enough to attract college graduates. Lack of pay for many smaller agencies 2. The degree requirement decreases applicant pools. Although some did not agree, the majority of police chiefs surveyed stated their department’s mandatory degree equirement has reduced applicant pools. It reduces the pool of potential applicants at a time when suitable applicants are hard to find. There remains a high percentage of law enforcement executives and government officials who believe a four-year degree is not a necessity in preparing an individual for a law enforcement career. Because of the difficulty in finding a sufficient number of qualified candidates Reduction in applicant pool is significant 3. The chiefs in this studied strongly valued education, however education ov erall is under-valued in policing. Most chiefs say they value education, but stop short of making it a requirement. Education is under-valued in policing.The four-year degree requirement make recruiting tougher and it creates challenges for retaining personnel. † I still believe that the majority of police leaders are, as a law-enforcement culture, anti-education for police officers 4. Police leaders who have not attained a college degree may not find one necessary. Therefore, this presents itself as a great challenge, one of increasing overall education standards. Administrators may not believe a college degree is necessary, especially if they have not earned one