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The history of the African American woman in the United States can be described as a struggle for survival and identity within a tripartite of oppression that includes racism, classism, and sexism [Hudson-Weems, C. (1989). The tripartite plight of African American women as reflected in the novels of Hurston and Walker. Journal of Black Studies, 20, 192–207.]. In spite of these challenges, African American women have always considered education an important investment in the future [Gregory, S. T. (1995). Black women in the academy. New York, NY: University Press of American, Inc.)], and despite gender and racial stereotyping that have limited educational opportunities African American females have been inspired to become educators (McFarlin, Crittenden, & Ebbers, 1999). Although African American women are underrepresented in higher educational leadership roles (Ross & Green, 2000; Waring, 2003), little research exploring the development of women leaders in academia, as well of that of existing university presidents, is available (Madsen, 2007). The purpose of this chapter is to explore the career paths of African American university women presidents. This research has important implications to strengthen opportunities to attain these important leadership roles in higher education institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of weblogs by political parties in the 2005 general election campaign. It seeks to identify why, why not, and how parties used their weblogs during the election campaign.

The weblogs of the five political parties which had a weblog were assessed, and eight party e‐campaigners were interviewed.

The findings contrast with those of studies of the 2004 US presidential campaign where blogs appeared to play a significant campaigning role. Rather, in the UK, party blogs were essentially used as one‐way communication channels which added colour to party web sites. As a result, such weblogs may have encouraged visitors to return because of some form of voyeurism, but they were not either effective conversational, campaigning, or promotional tools.

The paper is based on a UK general election of an experimental political communication channel.

Suggests the key elements required for the effective use of weblogs. Also suggests that individual candidate weblogs may be a more appropriate channel to reach electors than party‐controlled weblogs. The motivation for using a weblog seems to be essentially a judgement that it might be worthwhile experimenting with one. However, until there is significant evidence that weblogs can have a tangible effect, it is likely that they will remain merely part of the background to a UK general election campaign.

The paper provides a means of judging the value of weblogs within political communication by political actors.

The need to maintain global competitiveness makes it clear that the United States must increase the participation in STEM fields by African Americans males. Historically, national security and economic status in a global economy has relied primarily on technological superiority; however, U.S. dominance in this regard is eroding. Data from the National Science Board (NSB) show that in the United States, from 1950 to 2000, the number of people in the science and technology workforce has dramatically increased approximately 200,000 to 5.5 million or more (Galama & Hosek, 2008). During that period, the average annual growth rate for S&E occupations was consistently higher than that for all U.S. workers. Further, employment needs for all S&E fields grew faster than U.S. degree production over the same period. As reported by the NSB, while the number of workers in S&E occupations in the United States grew at an average rate of 4.2% from 1980 to 2000, the S&E degree production in the United States grew only at a rate of 1.5%. To offset the shortage of supply versus demand, the S&E marketplace responded to that difference between degree production and occupation growth by employing individuals in S&E jobs who did not have S&E degrees. Additionally, some of that void was filled by employing foreign S&E workers.

Shared leadership is a management model based on the shared governance philosophy. Assumes those individuals or teams performing tasks are best equipped to provide meaningful improvement. The changing image of the current leadership model is one that resides in relationships rather than with a singular person. The key concepts are accountability, partnership, equity, and ownership.When shared leadership was initiated at St Joseph’s Health Care, London, Ontario, in 1998, there was a commitment by management and staff to ensure that it was successfully implemented. In order to determine areas for improvement in the implementation process, continual evaluation is necessary. Reports from various staff members, prior to the project, indicated that the shared leadership implementation plan had not been fully realised. Therefore, a qualitative evaluation project, utilising focus groups and interviews, was completed. The purpose of the study was to identify the drivers, as well as the barriers affecting the implementation process. Several recommendations for improving the process were determined by the participants of the study. The result of the project was a collection of four themes, common to the discussions of barriers, drivers and recommendations. The internalisation of the concepts specific to the shared leadership model was found to be vital. The effectiveness of the council framework, including the council structure, processes and membership was also important. Communication of outcomes arising from the council was crucial. The final theme to be identified included those Humanistic Needs that addressed the relationship aspects of this model. Furthermore, the relationship between these themes was explored in the context of the external forces affecting the shared leadership model.

This volume's title, Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent Past, Promising Future, suggests women of color have endured a tumultuous past, given their historical experience with discrimination as a result of both racism and sexism in the United States. Collectively identified as African American, Asian/Pacific American, Hispanic/Latina, and Native American women in the United States, women of color share membership in marginalized groups and they experience varied forms of discrimination in their efforts to fully and equally participate in society (Lloyd-Jones, 2011). Discussions of these injustices and their effects are included in chapters throughout the volume. The chapters feature relevant experiences specific to women faculty and administrators of color in higher education. These include examinations of the progress of women of color in academia, as demonstrated by their increased (but still underrepresented) presence in senior-level administrative and faculty positions, and suggestions for a more inclusive academic environment for women of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The compilation of chapters in fact, provides conceptual, empirical, and reflective knowledge implicitly revealing the “present” status of women of color in predominantly White institutions of higher education. Many of the contributors provide implications and recommendations for a “promising future” in their chapters.

Jean Lau Chin, Ed.D., ABPP, is professor at Adelphi University in New York. She has held leadership positions as dean, Adelphi University; Systemwide Dean, California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University; President, CEO Services; executive director, South Cove Community Health Center; and codirector, Thom Child Guidance Clinic. Her work on diversity, leadership, and women's issues has been extensive including a recent Special Issue on Diversity and Leadership in the American Psychologist. Among her many awards for her work is Distinguished Leadership in Education, Organization of Chinese Americans, Long Island.

Test evaluates feasibility of CD‐ROM as document supply medium. The hypothesis goes like this. If document supply centres could cut the cost of filling requests for journal articles, and continue to charge the same price for their service, publishers of the journals could share in the resultant increase in profits. One way to cut costs, the hypothesis continues, may be to replace the labour‐intensive photocopying procedures currently practised at the supply centres with document delivery on CD‐ROM. The new technology could also enhance publisher/library relationships by improving the scope of service to library users.

In an effort to restore investor confidence in the wake of recent financial reporting scandals, the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 mandates that audit committees be fully independent and have at least one financial expert. The SEC adopted rules implementing these Sarbanes‐Oxley provisions. This paper contributes to the literature on the association between audit committee characteristics recommended by SOX and the likelihood of fraud in two ways. First, we focus on audit committee composition and the extent of the underlying nature of the firm (e.g., firm size, growth) and the contracting environment (e.g., managerial ownership, leverage) of the firm on the likelihood of fraud. In particular, we find that the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting is negatively related to audit committee independence, number of audit committee meetings and managerial ownership and positively related to firm size and firm growth opportunities. Second, we separately examine firms with totally independent audit committees and fraudulent financial reporting. This sample is interesting because these are firms that had good corporate governance and yet still had fraudulent financial reporting. By separately examining firms with totally independent audit committees, we find that the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting given a totally independent audit committee is inversely related to the level of managerial ownership and the number of audit committee meetings.