Voluntary Participation in Regional Fisheries Management Council Meetings

Insufficient and unrepresentative participation in voluntary public hearings and policy discussions has been problematic since Aristotle's time. In fisheries, research has shown that involvement is dominated by financially resourceful and extreme-opinion stakeholders and tends to advantage groups that have a lower cost of attendance. Stakeholders may exhibit only one or all of these traits but can be still similarly advantaged. The opposites of these traits tend to characterize the disadvantaged, such as the middle-ground opinions, the less wealthy or organized, and the more remote stakeholders. Remoteness or distance is the most straightforward and objective of these characteristics to measure. We analyzed the New England Fishery Management Council's sign-in sheets for 2003-2006, estimating participants' travel distance and associations with the groundfish, scallop, and herring industries. We also evaluated the representativeness of participation by comparing attendance to landings and permit distributions. The distance analysis showed a significant correlation between attendance levels and costs via travel distance. These results suggest a potential bias toward those stakeholders residing closer to meeting locations, possibly disadvantaging parties who are further and must incur higher costs. However, few significant differences were found between the actual fishing industry and attendee distributions, suggesting that the geographical distribution of the meeting attendees is statistically similar to that of the larger fishery. The interpretation of these results must take into consideration the limited time span of the analysis, as policy changes may have altered the industry make-up and location prior to our study. Furthermore, the limited geographical input of stakeholders may lend bias to the Council's perception of ecological and social conditions throughout the spatial range of the fishery. These factors should be further considered in the policy-formation process in order to incorporate a broader range of stakeholder input.

Community College Student Participation in Undergraduate Research: An Explanatory Case Study for Faculty and Research Mentors

This study adapted the current model of science undergraduate research experiences (URE's) and applied this novel modification to include community college students. Numerous researchers have examined the efficacy of URE's in improving undergraduate retention and graduation rates, as well as matriculation rates for graduate programs. However, none have detailed the experience for community college students, and few have employed qualitative methodologies to gather relevant descriptive data from URE participants. This study included perspectives elicited from both non-traditional student participants and the established laboratory community. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the traditional model for a non-traditional student population. The research effort described here utilized a qualitative design and an explanatory case study methodology. Six non-traditional students from the Maine Community College System participated in this study. Student participants were placed in six academic research laboratories located throughout the state. Student participants were interviewed three times during their ten-week internship and asked to record their personal reflections in electronic format. Participants from the established research community were also interviewed. These included both faculty mentors and other student laboratory personnel. Ongoing comparative analysis of the textual data revealed that laboratory organizational structure and social climate significantly influence acculturation outcomes for non-traditional URE participants. Student participants experienced a range of acculturation outcomes from full integration to marginalization. URE acculturation outcomes influenced development of non-traditional students? professional and academic self-concepts. Positive changes in students? self-concepts resulted in greater commitment to individual professional goals and academic aspirations. The findings from this study suggest that traditional science URE models can be successfully adapted to meet the unique needs of a non-traditional student population – community college students. These interpretations may encourage post-secondary educators, administrators, and policy makers to consider expanded access and support for non-traditional students seeking science URE opportunities.