Book Reviews

The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago (Or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself) Carol Fisher Saller Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2009, 136pp. ISBN: 9780226734255, £9.00/$10.14     

Beyond Giving: Political Advocacy and Volunteer Behaviors of Public University Alumni

College and university leaders have paid an enormous level of attention to one domain of alumni involvement: charitable giving. In light of the decline of state support for higher education and the shrinking ability of families to pay for college, such emphasis is understandable. However, this emphasis has blinded scholars and practitioners to understanding the important non-monetary support roles played by college alumni. Drawing on data from a research extensive university, this study employs a sequential mixed method design (focus groups and confirmatory factor analysis) to demonstrate that non-monetary support behaviors are best understood through the distinct, but interrelated domains of political advocacy and volunteerism. Political advocacy behaviors include contacting legislators, the governor’s office, local politicians and serving on a political action team, while volunteer behaviors include mentoring new alumni, recruiting students, and participating in special events. The study breaks ground for future research on alumni support for higher education, including strategies to recruit alumni volunteers and advocates.     

铅笔盒

[1]在办公室里,我正为晚上在商业区对面的一所大学里举办的一堂讲座做着准备,我陷入沉思之中,这时电话铃响了。我从未谋面的一位妇女说,她是一个7岁男孩的母亲,她快去世了。她说治疗专家告诫她,与小男孩谈论自己即将死亡的事,对他而言是很痛苦的,但是她觉得用什么方式都不妥。     

A Cost–Benefit Analysis of Automatic Item Generation

Automatic item generation (AIG)—a means of leveraging technology to create large quantities of items—requires a minimum number of items to offset the sizable upfront investment (i.e., model development and technology deployment) in order to achieve cost savings. In this cost–benefit analysis, we estimated the cost of each step of AIG and manual item writing and applied cost—benefit formulas to calculate the number of items that would have to be produced before the upfront costs of AIG outweigh manual item writing costs in the context of K‐12 mathematics items. Results indicated that AIG is more cost‐effective than manual item writing when developing, at a minimum, 173 to 247 items within one fine‐grained content area (e.g., fourth‐ through seventh‐grade area of figures). The article concludes with a discussion of implications for test developers and the nonmonetary tradeoffs involved in AIG.     

An examination of emergency contraception use by undergraduate college students in the Midwest using the integrated behavioural model

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence undergraduate college student use of emergency contraception (EC) and their level of knowledge about the product, in order to assist in the development of intervention programmes to increase its use, which could lead to lower rates of unintended pregnancies in this population. A response rate of 98.4% included 1553 surveys from students at 11 Midwestern universities. Students were predominantly female (63.5%), white (75.3%) and aged 18–21 years (80%). They ranged from first-year students (23.8%) through to fourth-year students (13.8%), with second-year students comprising the largest group (32.6%). The majority of respondents reported being heterosexual (92.1%), and 34.1% of those completing the questionnaire reported being in a committed relationship. Most respondents reported having had sexual intercourse at least once in their lifetime (78.9%). Of the 8.4% of sexually active students who had experienced an unintended pregnancy, 18.1% had used EC in the past 12 months. Knowledge of EC was not high; but as knowledge increased, the use of EC increased. The Integrated Behavioural Model predicted 50% of the variance in intention. Each construct contributed a portion of variance except experiential attitude, which was not statistically significant in the path analysis. The model could be used in any future interventions to increase EC use and decrease unintended pregnancies among college students.