Hofstra Horizons - Spring 2021

H O F S T R A

HORIZONS SPRING 2021

Higher Education in the United States: Present Challenges and Future Policy Solutions

RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP PROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AT HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY

president’s COLUMN

HOFSTRAhorizons Research and Scholarship at Hofstra University

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s we reflect on the past year and optimistically look ahead to the fall semester, I commend the Hofstra community for its perseverance through the pandemic. We have successfully navigated this academic year in person, keeping the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and administration a priority throughout.

table of contents

As the Hofstra community begins to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, it is important to recognize that now is not the time to let our guard down. We must remain vigilant and continue to follow the protocols and guidelines set by the CDC to ensure that our campus remains a safe environment.

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Higher Education in the United States: Present Challenges and Future Policy Solutions

Despite the challenges presented in this unprecedented time, our faculty have demonstrated incredible dedication to teaching and their research. It gives me great honor to introduce this issue of Hofstra Horizons, which features an exceptionally diverse range of research topics.

With the vaccination pod on campus allowing students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and Gov. Andrew Cuomo beginning to ease restrictions, I am hopeful that it will soon be safe to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty in person.

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Will the Catholic Church Ordain Women?

As we continue to inch toward the light at the end of the tunnel, I congratulate the faculty on their outstanding research and thank the Hofstra community for endlessly supporting them.

Sincerely,

Stuart Rabinowitz, JD

Stuart Rabinowitz, JD President Herman A. Berliner, PhD Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

President, Hofstra University Margaret Abraham, PhD Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Sofia Kakoulidis, MBA Vice Provost for Research and Sponsored Programs Alice Diaz-Bonhomme, BA Assistant Provost for Research and Sponsored Programs 2

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provost’s COLUMN

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s we continue to cope with the pandemic, our faculty, administration, staff, and students forge ahead in support of a healthy and productive learning environment. It has been inspiring to watch the Hofstra community utilize remote and hybrid learning as needed, and remain focused on the outstanding education we provide.

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I ncreased Incidence and Mortality of COVID-19 among the U.S. Socially Vulnerable Population: Findings From the Early Phase of the Pandemic

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Communicating Across Cultures

HOFSTRA HORIZONS is published annually by the Office for Research and Sponsored Programs, 144 Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549-1440.

Each issue describes in lay language some of the many research and creative activities conducted at Hofstra. The conclusions and opinions expressed by the investigators and writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect University policy. ©2021 by Hofstra University in the United States.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of Hofstra University.

Inquiries and requests for permission to reprint material should be addressed to: Editor, Hofstra Horizons, Office for Research and Sponsored Programs, 144 Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549-1440.

Telephone: 516-463-6810.

Throughout, the faculty has also worked tirelessly to ensure that our research efforts remain undiminished. I am proud to present the spring 2021 issue of Hofstra Horizons, which features the outstanding research of our faculty.

Rebecca Natow, JD, EdD, addresses the challenges faced by higher education since the start of the pandemic, including issues with educational technology, the underutilization of educational research, and lack of financial resources for colleges and universities. She offers potential public policy solutions that can help the higher education sector address these challenges.

Dr. Phyllis Zagano’s research explores the restoration of ordained women deacons in the Catholic Church. Dr. Zagano offers a brief history of women deacons and the responses of bishops around the world. She presents both the theological support for and the theological objections to women deacons – with a second Pontifical Commission set to meet in fall 2021 to revive this conversation.

Dr. Ibraheem Karaye explains the findings of research into how COVID-19 disproportionately affects minority and marginalized populations in the United States. Dr. Karaye discusses the link between social vulnerability and COVID-19 mortality rates, finding that a single unit increase in the Social Vulnerability Index is associated with an 8.4% increased risk of COVID-19.

Lastly, Dr. Kara Alaimo’s research explores how culture affects communication in the workplace. Topics include transparency and openness, reputation management, security concerns, and setting goals. Dr. Alaimo also touches on stereotypes about people from different countries, communication mediums, and language.

I offer my sincerest congratulations to the faculty featured in this issue.

Sincerely,

Herman A. Berliner, PhD Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Hofstra University

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Higher Education in the United States: Present Challenges and Future Policy Solutions

Rebecca S. Natow, JD, EdD, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, Hofstra University The year 2020 will be remembered as one of the most challenging in recent history, characterized by a deadly pandemic, economic recession, and a contentious U.S. presidential election. For higher

education, the events of 2020 forced tumult and emergency innovation upon a sector that was already facing an uncertain economic future (Doyle, 2020), and which has been famously resistant to rapid change (Marcus, 2017; Tagg, 2012). But the events of 2020 have also provided an opportunity for higher education to reflect upon its present situation, consider what the future may hold, and determine how best to advocate

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for policies that will improve higher education for students, communities, and other stakeholders. Colleges and universities play important roles in promoting education and economic development within their regions while providing social mobility, critical thinking skills, and other benefits for students (Chan, 2016; Ma et al., 2019; Mayhew et al., 2016; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). As such, society benefits greatly when the higher education sector is strong.

In this article, I draw from my own research in the field of higher education as well as other related literature to describe three key problems facing higher education

today: challenges with educational technology, the underutilization of educational research, and diminished financial resources for colleges and universities. This article also explains how public policy may provide solutions for those challenges and, in doing so, foster a brighter outlook for higher education in the United States.

Challenges With Educational Technology In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly propelled higher education into online environments across the U.S. and the world.

Classes, conferences, student clubs,

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and other events were conducted in virtual environments in order to meet social-distancing mandates and protect against transmission of the coronavirus.

The use of technology in higher education, particularly at such a large scale and with minimal preparation time, is not without its challenges. In an article I co-wrote as part of a research team with the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (see Natow et al., 2020), we reported findings on how technology is used in the instruction of academically underprepared college students at broad-access institutions.

Among the colleges we studied, the most frequently reported challenges with technology involved problems that students and professors experienced while using the technologies. Other challenges with technology included costs, limitations of technology products, and unavailability of the technology due to factors such as lack of broadband access for rural and low-income students, lack of accommodations for students with disabilities, and technical difficulties that made technology temporarily unusable (Natow et al., 2020). Other research has shown that faculty sometimes have difficulty engaging students in online classes (DeVore et al., 2017; Dixson, 2010).

even beyond the pandemic, problems such as these will continue to challenge higher education.

Underutilization of Educational Research Another challenge currently facing higher education is the relative lack of utilization of educational research in policy and practice. This is a dilemma for higher education for multiple reasons. First, universities are producers of much educational research, as professors of education and other social science faculty often conduct and publish educational research. When such research goes unused by decision makers, an important aspect of universities’ work becomes less effective than it has the potential to be. Additionally, higher education stakeholders stand to benefit when programs that research has found to be effective at promoting student learning and success are implemented.

Yet despite federal policies incentivizing educators to implement more evidence-based practices (Browder & Cooper-Duffy, 2003; West, 2015), studies have found that educational research is not often

... the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly propelled higher education into online environments across the U.S. and the world.

utilized – that is, decision makers only infrequently base decisions about education policy and programs on research (see, for example, Asen et al., 2011, 2013; Henig, 2008; Natow, 2020b).

The relative lack of research utilization in the federal higher education rulemaking process is a case-in-point.

Many of these challenges with educational technologies were reflected in reports about the large-scale pivot to online teaching and learning that occurred across higher education in response to COVID-19. For example, technology necessary to access remote classes during the pandemic was unavailable to many students, particularly those with low income and those living in rural areas (Lederman, 2020). As educational technology continues to evolve and institutions continue to expand their online course offerings

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Figure 1.

The Higher Education Rulemaking Process (Source: Natow, 2017)

Higher Education Act (authorizing statute)

Decision to Commence Rulemaking

Office of Management & Budget Review (if applicable)

Negotiated Rulemaking (if Title IV reg)

Regional Meetings (if Title IV reg)

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Figure 2.

Percentage of Federal Register Pages on Which Each Factor Was Cited Across All Five Studied Regulations (Source: Natow, 2020b)

contains an additional step called negotiated rulemaking, where the Department of Education meets with a wide range of stakeholder groups to develop a proposal of regulatory language (Natow, 2017).

My study analyzed how the federal government and higher education interest groups used research in the rulemaking process to create five prominent higher education regulations.

Figure 2 depicts the percentage of Federal Register pages across all five of

My study’s findings are indicative of a larger challenge for university researchers in education and other fields: Researchers’ work does not frequently reach policymakers and, when it does, policymakers often use research to bolster their political

70 60 50 40 30 20 10

Research

Statistics

Beliefs

I recently conducted a study of how research is used in this policymaking process, through which the United States Department of Education creates regulations of higher education (see Natow, 2020a, 2020b). As Figure 1 shows, rulemaking is a multi-step process whereby a proposed regulation goes through several stages of public inspection, stakeholder input, Office of Management and Budget review, and revision before becoming finalized and published in the Federal Register.

Often, higher education rulemaking 6

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Final Rule

my study’s regulations on which research was cited, as well as on which factors other than research were cited.

As shown in Figure 2, my study found that educational research has been utilized in this process relatively less often than several other factors. My study also found that when research was cited by policymakers in this process, it was more often research published by the government or nonprofit organizations than academic research published in peer-reviewed journals (Natow, 2020b). Regarding the purposes for which research has been introduced into higher education rulemaking, my study found that more often than any other purpose, research was offered to support the policy argument of the person citing the research (Natow, 2020a). This is known as the “political use” of research, in which a policy actor hails particular research because it favors the actor’s preferred policy and disregards other research simply because it does not (Ness, 2010; Nutley et al., 2007; Weiss et al., 2005).

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0

Notice & Comment Phase

Experience

Examples

Law

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arguments rather than to find the most effective approach for solving a problem (Ness, 2010; Nutley et al., 2007; Weiss et al., 2005).

Diminishing Financial Resources for Higher Education The COVID-19 pandemic has left the higher education sector in economic turmoil. Enrollment declines due to the pandemic have resulted in revenue shortfalls for higher education institutions across the United States, with some of the steepest declines experienced by community colleges (Kelderman, 2020). The budgets of public institutions are likely to face further revenue shortages due to expected declines in appropriations from cash-strapped state governments (Doyle, 2020). Institutions refunded much of students’ room and board payments and also lost income from not hosting conferences, summer camps, sporting contests, and other on-campus activities for most of 2020 (Whitford, 2020).

The financial prospects for higher education became so dire during the pandemic that higher education interest groups lobbied Congress for a financial stimulus in the amount of $120 billion, noting that even this amount would be insufficient to cover the losses higher education has endured (Mitchell, 2020). Although the federal government has provided coronavirus-related stimulus funding for higher education, these funds have fallen well short of the amount higher education institutions would need to recoup much of what was lost during the pandemic (McPherson, 2021).

Potential Policy Solutions Although higher education faces substantial challenges, there are ways that public policy can help

the sector face these challenges and hold brighter prospects for the future. Indeed, given the important role higher education plays in society and the financial and social benefits that accrue from a college education (Ma et al., 2019; Mayhew et al., 2016), policymakers should prioritize the needs of the sector and craft effective public policy solutions at this critical moment in U.S. history. There are a number of specific steps policymakers can take that would promote the recovery of higher education and enable institutions to continue serving their students and communities. Some such steps are summarized in Table 1 and explained more fully in the paragraphs that follow.

To address challenges with educational technology, policymakers can seek to provide broader access to the internet and technologies students need to

access online coursework and complete institutional requirements. Congress recently provided funding to assist some higher education institutions and low-income households with the cost of internet connectivity, but much of this was temporary, pandemic-related emergency funding (Palmer & Whistle, 2021). Additional government support to further expand access to technology can help close higher education’s “digital divide” (Whistle & West, 2020). Moreover, policymakers should award competitive grants for institutions to use educational technologies in innovative ways and – importantly – to train students and staff in how to use those technologies effectively.

A policy that would address the two challenges of using ed tech and underutilization of educational research

Table 1 Potential Public Policy Solutions for Current Challenges Facing Higher Education Challenge

Potential Policy Solutions

Difficulties Using Educational Technologies

• Expand broadband access.

• Award grants for institutions to use educational technologies in innovative ways.

• Award grants for institutions to train students, faculty, and staff in the effective utilization of educational technology.

• Incentivize colleges and universities to employ technologies and uses of technology that research has found to be effective at improving student outcomes.

Underutilization of Educational Research

• Incentivize colleges and universities to employ technologies and uses of technology that research has found to be effective at improving student outcomes.

• Involve university researchers directly in policymaking processes.

Diminishing Financial Resources for Higher Education

• Increase need-based student financial aid.

• Invest more funding in higher education.

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Although the federal government has provided coronavirus-related stimulus funding for higher education, these funds have fallen well short of the amount higher education institutions would need to recoup much of what was lost during the pandemic.

would be to incentivize colleges and universities to employ technologies and uses of technology that research has found to be effective at improving student outcomes. Another way to increase utilization of educational research would be to include researchers in policymaking processes, such as by inviting researchers to participate in the negotiated rulemaking process and other aspects of the Department of Education’s rulemaking process explained above (Natow, 2020b). Increasing need-based student financial aid, such as the federal Pell Grant and similar programs at the state level, can increase enrollments and equity in higher education (see, for example, Perna & Kurban, 2013).

Finally, government at all levels should invest more funding in higher education. This is something advocates have argued for decades, but it is critically important in the current

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moment. As Dr. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and former under secretary of education, wrote to congressional leadership in September 2020, colleges and universities play an important role in producing regional economic growth. Thus, financial support of higher education would meaningfully contribute to stimulating the economy in the era of post-pandemic recession and economic uncertainty (Mitchell, 2020). Policies such as these would help higher education overcome some of its most difficult current challenges, and by extension, provide valuable economic and educational benefits to their students and surrounding communities.

students via self-paced interactive electronic learning tutorials for introductory physics. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 13(1), 010127.

References Asen, R., Gurke, D., Solomon, R., Conners, P., & Gumm, E. (2011).

“The research says”: Definitions and uses of a key policy term in federal law and local school board deliberations.

Argumentation and advocacy, 47, 195-213.

Kelderman, E. (2020, October 14). We haven’t begun to feel the real economic damage. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/ article/we-havent-begun-to-feel-thereal-economic-damage

Asen, R., Gurke, D., Conners, P., Solomon, R., & Gumm, E. (2013).

Research evidence and school board deliberations: Lessons from three Wisconsin school districts. Educational Policy, 27(1), 33-63.

Browder, D. M., & Cooper-Duffy, K. (2003). Evidence-based practices for students with severe disabilities and the requirement for accountability in “No Child Left Behind.” The Journal of Special Education, 37(3), 157-163.

Chan, R. Y. (2016). Understanding the purpose of higher education: An analysis of the economic and social benefits for completing a college degree. Journal of Education Policy, Planning and Administration, 6(5), 1-40.

DeVore, S., Marshman, E., & Singh, C. (2017). Challenge of engaging all

Dixson, M. D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1-13.

Doyle, W. R. (2020, October 12).

Higher education’s nightmare scenario.

Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/ higher-educations-nightmare-scenario Henig, J. R. (2008). Spin cycle: How research is used in policy debates: The case of charter schools. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Lederman, D. (2020, April 15).

Learning during the pandemic. Inside Higher Education. https://www. insidehighered.com/digital-learning/ article/2020/04/15/unequal-accesslearning-fall-without-students-andanother-mooc Ma, J., Pender, M., & Welch, M. (2019).

Education pays 2019 (Trends in Higher Education Series). The College Board.

Marcus, J. (2017, December 18).

Impatient with universities’ slow pace of change, employers go around them. The Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/impatientuniversities-slow-pace-changeemployers-go-around/ Mayhew, M. J., Rockenbach, A. N., Bowman, N. A., Seifert, T. A., & Wolniak, G. C. (2016). How college affects students: 21st century evidence that higher education works. John Wiley & Sons.

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McPherson, M. P. (2021, January 19).

How the first 100 days of the Biden administration can strengthen public research universities and their students.

Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ petermcpherson/2021/01/19/how-thefirst-100-days-of-the-bidenadministration-can-strengthen-publicresearch-universities--their-students/ Mitchell, T. (2020, September 25).

Letter to The Honorable Nancy Pelosi & The Honorable Kevin McCarthy.

American Council on Education. https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/ Letter-House-Fall-COVIDSupplemental-092520.pdf Natow, R. S. (2017). Higher education rulemaking: The politics of creating regulatory policy. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Natow, R. S. (2020a). Research use and politics in the federal higher education rulemaking process. Educational Policy. doi.org/10.1177/0895904820917363 Natow, R. S. (2020b). Research utilization in higher education rulemaking: A multi-case study of research prevalence, sources, and barriers. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(5), 1-32.

Natow, R. S., Reddy, V., & Grant, M. (2020). Technology use in

developmental education: Experiences, challenges, and rationales. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 44(10-12), 738-756.

Ness, E. C. (2010). The role of information in the policy process: Implications for the examination of research utilization in higher education policy. In J. C. Smart (ed.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol. 25 (pp. 1-49). Springer.

Nutley, S. M., Walter, I., & Davies, H. T. O. (2007). Using Evidence: How Research Can Inform Public Services.

Policy Press.

Palmer, I., & Whistle, W. (2021, January 12). Spending deal supports broadband access for college students.

New America. https://www. newamerica.org/education-policy/ edcentral/spending-deal-supportsbroadband-access-college-students/ Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students: Volume 2, A third decade of research.

Jossey-Bass.

Perna, L. W., & Kurban, E. R. (2013).

Improving college access and choice. In L. W. Perna & A. P. Jones (eds.), The state of college access and completion: Improving college success for students

from underrepresented groups (pp.

10-33). Routledge.

Tagg, J. (2012). Why does the faculty resist change? Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 44(1), 6-15.

Weiss, C. H., Murphy-Graham, E., & Birkeland, S. (2005). An alternate route to policy influence: How evaluations affect D.A.R.E. American Journal of Evaluation, 26(1), 12-30.

West, M. R. (2015, February 5). From evidence-based programs to an evidence-based system: Opportunities under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Brookings Institution. https://www. brookings.edu/research/from-evidencebased-programs-to-an-evidence-basedsystem-opportunities-under-the-everystudent-succeeds-act/ Whistle, W., & West, E. B. (2020, September 24). Congress should help college students bridge the digital divide. The Hill. https://thehill.com/ opinion/education/518068-congressshould-help-college-students-bridgethe-digital-divide Whitford, E. (2020, April 10). Here come the furloughs. Inside Higher Education. https://www.insidehighered. com/news/2020/04/10/collegesannounce-furloughs-and-layoffsfinancial-challenges-mount

Rebecca Natow is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at Hofstra University. She is an expert on higher education policy and has conducted research on performance-based funding for higher education, technology use in postsecondary developmental education, and research utilization in the creation of federal regulations. Her research and teaching focus on higher education law and policy, federal education policy processes, qualitative research methods, and higher education leadership.

Dr. Natow holds an EdD, EdM, and MA in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

She is author of Higher Education Rulemaking: The Politics of Creating Regulatory Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), as well as numerous scholarly articles, commentaries, and research reports.

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Will the Catholic Church Ordain Women?

Phyllis Zagano, PhD, Senior Research Associate-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor, Department of Religion, Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Hofstra University

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Introduction There is little historical evidence of women priests, but hundreds, even thousands of women were ordained as deacons throughout the Christian world in its various churches during the first millennium and to the 12th century, when the diaconate as a permanent vocation effectively died out. Following the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the diaconate was restored as a permanent vocation, but only for men.

General (UISG) in Rome revived the conversation about restoring women to the ordained diaconate. Pointing out that many women religious around the world performed diaconal works, one of the 900 sisters in attendance asked: “What prevents the Church from including women among permanent deacons, as was the case in the primitive Church? Why not constitute an official commission to study the matter?”

A single question presented to Pope Francis at the May 2016 triennial meeting of the women’s International Union of Superiors

Why women deacons?

Deacons are typically responsible for the Church’s charity, for its ministry to the poor, the sick, the

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disenfranchised, and the abandoned.

They are ordained clergy, and they participate in Catholic Masses by proclaiming the Gospel, preaching, and assisting at the altar. Because they are ordained, they also can hold certain offices restricted to clerics, and can serve as single judges in canonical proceedings.

Restoring women to the ordained diaconate seemed to make sense, especially in mission territories where there are few trained ministers and fewer priests, but where thousands of religious sisters and other women ministers manage parishes and attend to the needs of

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the people. So, Pope Francis took up the challenge the UISG sisters presented and named 12 scholars to the Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women in August 2016 (Box I).

The question of women in ordained ministry in the Catholic Church was, and still is, complex. In the 1970s, a groundswell of interest in bringing Catholic women into the priesthood drowned out the conversation about women deacons. Despite the fact that Pope Paul VI asked about women deacons when he restored the diaconate as a permanent vocation for men after Vatican II, the voices asking for women deacons were not heard. In fact, soon, the theological objections to women priests clouded over the theological support for women deacons.

Women Deacons in History There has never been any doubt that women deacons existed. When he spoke to the UISG sisters that day in Rome in 2016, Pope Francis recalled a conversation with a scholar of Syriac Christianity. The pope told the sisters that in ancient Syria, when a woman accused her husband of abuse, the woman would go to the woman deacon, who would examine the bruises and testify to the bishop.

Such is evidence of an early form of marriage annulment, but it means much more. The woman deacon’s word was accepted as valid. As a cleric, her testimony had weight.

As the pope spoke to the UISG sisters, he knew the question had already been studied in Rome. In 2002, the International Theological Commission, connected to the curial office, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented the results of its second study (the first concluded in

1997). While the first study was short and reportedly positive, the findings of the second study were inconclusive.

The 1997 study was not published.

The findings of the 2002 study were, essentially, (1) women deacons existed but were not identical to male deacons; (2) the diaconate is not the priesthood; and therefore, (3) ordaining women deacons is something to be determined by the Magisterium, essentially, by the pope. The pope at that time, Pope John Paul II, did not respond. Neither did his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. So, in 2016, Pope Francis called a new Commission to study the question.

BOX I: Members of the First Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women (2016-2018) Dr. Nuria Calduch-Benages (Spain), professor of Old Testament, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy Dr. Francesca Cocchini (Italy), ordinary professor of history of Christianity, Sapienzia University, Rome, Italy; lecturer in patristics, Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Rome, Italy Msgr. Piero Coda (Italy), ordinary professor of systematic theology, Sophia University, Florence, Italy Rev. Robert Dodaro, OSA (USA), former president, Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Rome, Italy Rev. Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, SJ (Spain), ordinary professor of dogmatic theology, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain Sr. Mary Melone, SFA (Italy), rector, Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy Rev. Karl-Heinz Menke (Germany), emeritus professor of dogmatic theology, University of Bonn, Germany Rev. Aimable Musoni, SDB (Rwanda), professor of ecclesiology, Salesian University, Rome, Italy

Studying the History of Women Deacons The Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women met four times in Rome in the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, completing its work in June 2018.

Nearly one year later, at the May 2019 UISG triennial meeting, Pope Francis gave what the UISG president later described as the history section of the Commission document. The pope had also told the sisters he had more papers, which they could request. It is unknown if the UISG has obtained the complete

Thank you

Rev. Bernard Pottier, SJ (Belgium), professor of dogmatic theology and philosophy, Institute of Theological Studies, Brussels, Belgium Dr. Marianne Schlosser (Germany), professor of spiritual theology, University of Vienna, Austria Dr. Michelina Tenace (Italy), ordinary professor and chair of fundamental theology, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy Dr. Phyllis Zagano (USA), senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, USA

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a Belgian professor, Roger Gryson, published The Ministry of Women in the Early Church. Gryson presented his historical findings that women were ordained to the diaconate and performed diaconal ministries for many centuries, although somewhat more limited than those of their male counterparts.

Gryson wrote about the ordination liturgy of women deacons: “nothing distinguishing it formally from the ordination of their male colleagues.”1

report and has not released what it did receive.

Published or not, with or without the entire Commission report, the history of ordained women deacons is wellknown and incontrovertible. Women deacons ministered in various ways in multiple locations East and West throughout the Church, until the diaconate as a permanent vocation died out. Even so, their ministries, as well as the nature of their ordinations, have been repeatedly analyzed and debated.

The disagreement is in two areas: ministry and ordination.

As for ministries, it is widely agreed that women deacons participated in the administration of the sacrament of baptism, which in the ancient Church involved full immersion in water, with the individual to be baptized often unclothed or wearing a simple cloth covering. It would be unseemly for a woman to be seen or touched by a man, so the male bishop would need a female assistant in the ceremony, especially for the rite of anointing. Also, women

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deacons are known to have anointed ill women, for the same reasons of propriety.

As for ordination, there are several liturgical ceremonies for the ordination of deacons, male and female. Several are even in the Vatican Library. Some are identical, with a few separate prayers for men and for women; some are listed separately in liturgical books.

Early rituals for the ordination of a woman deacon make it clear that she is ordained to the same order of deacons as the men. The women were ordained by their bishops within the sanctuary of the Church during a Mass and in the presence of the clergy (priests and deacons) through the imposition of hands by the invocation of the Holy Spirit; the bishop placed a stole around their necks, and they held and drank from the sacramental chalice. Most importantly, in the ceremony they were called deacons.

As the discussion continued through the end of the 20th century, two strains of thought appeared. In the early 1970s,

However, some years later, clearly in an attempt to overtake the growing acceptance of the recovery of the tradition of ordained women deacons, French liturgist Aimé-Georges Martimort published a refutation of Gryson.2 Even so, Martimort wrote that his own work was neither definitive nor determinative: “... theologians must strictly guard against trying to prove hypotheses dependent upon only a part of the documentation available” and “There exists a significant danger of distorting both the facts and the texts whenever one is dealing with them secondhand.”3 Meanwhile, a few academics and other writers took up the discussion about Catholic women deacons from time to time. Both the Canon Law Society of America (in 1995) and the Catholic Theological Society of America (in 1997) supported the restoration of women to the diaconate.

My own work began to appear in 2000; Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church assumes the proven history and focuses on questions related to sacramental theology and pastoral need. Refereed academic discussion does not doubt the facts, although a strain of unofficial English-language Catholic journalism antithetical to Pope Francis (Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN),

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National Catholic Register, Catholic Herald, Church Militant, LifeSite News) and independent bloggers turn to Martimort, whose research was completed prior to 1982.

The World’s Bishops Take Up the Question Outside the academic debate, bishops began to ask for more serious consideration of women in both the ministry and the administration of the Church. Pope Francis had already called for “a more incisive presence of women in the Church” in 2013, soon after his election as pope. Formally and informally, bishops were responding to that idea.

In October 2015, Canadian Archbishop Paul-André Durocher presented a strong intervention on behalf of the dignity of women at the Synod of Bishops held in Rome that year to consider questions surrounding the family and family life. Archbishop Durocher presented two strong proposals: (1) appoint women to positions in the Curia, the pope’s senior staff; and (2) open the diaconate to women. But the Vatican remained hesitant; the Vatican’s spokesman did not brief English-speaking media on Archbishop Durocher’s comments, which were made in French.

commentary on the treatment of girls and women worldwide. Including terms like “domination” and “discrimination,” the Synod called for greater recognition of women in society, including women in Church decision-making, and wrote “the vocation to the permanent diaconate calls for greater attention, because the full potential of this resource has yet to be tapped” (para. 90).4 Again, as above, in May 2019, the pope gave the UISG a portion of the report and said he would recall the Commission. In October 2019, there was another Synod, this one a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to consider questions of the Pan-Amazon region – the nine South American countries of the Amazon River Basin.

The Amazon Synod’s final document reported: In the many consultations carried out in the Amazon, the fundamental role of religious and lay women in the Church of the Amazon and its communities was recognized and emphasized, given the wealth of

Both the Canon Law Society of America (in 1995) and the Catholic Theological Society of America (in 1997) supported the restoration of women to the diaconate.

services they provide. In a large number of these consultations, the permanent diaconate for women was requested. ... We would therefore like to share our experiences and reflections with the Commission and we await its results (para. 103).5 In his closing remarks to the Amazon Synod, Pope Francis said, “I welcome the challenge that you have given me:

The question of respecting women and including them more in official Church positions continued to circulate and, as above, the Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women soon met in Rome and, eventually, produced its 2018 report.

Then, in October 2018, another Synod of Bishops met, this one the Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment. The Synod’s final document mentions women 31 times and includes pointed

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BOX II:

Members of the Second Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women (2020-present) Dr. Catherine Brown-Tkacz (USA), visiting professor of theology, Ukrainian Catholic University, Kiev, Ukraine Deacon Dominic Cerrato (USA), director of diaconal formation, Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, USA Rev. Santiago del Cura Elena (Spain), professor, Theological Faculty of Northern Spain Rev. Denis Dupont-Fauville (France), official, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; secretary to the Second Commission

Deacon James Keating (USA), professor of spiritual theology, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Rev. Angelo Lameri (Italy), professor of liturgy and sacraments, and associate dean, Lateran University, Rome, Italy Dr. Rosalba Manes (Italy), extraordinary professor of biblical theology, Gregorian University, Rome, Italy

Dr. Caroline Farey (England), diocesan mission catechist, Diocese of Shrewsbury, England

Dr. Anne-Marie Pelettier (France), professor of biblical exegesis, Notre Dame Seminary, Paris, France

Dr. Barbara Hallensleben (Germany), professor of dogmatic theology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi (Italy), archbishop of Aquila, Italy; president of the Second Commission

‘and that they may be heard.’ I accept the challenge [applause]. Some things emerged which should be reformed: The Church must always reform.”6 But the pope did not recall his original Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. In April 2020, he named an entirely new Commission headed by the archbishop of Aquila, Italy, and composed of five men and five women, with a priest-secretary (Box II). The new Commission has not yet met, in person or via Zoom, but is expected to meet in fall 2021.

The Discussion Continues As individual research and general discussion have continued, and as Synods repeatedly ask for women deacons, negative efforts to forestall the restoration of women to the ordained diaconate press two related points.

First, some writers attempt to give the false impression that the 1994 Apostolic Letter of John Paul II, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, outlawing women priests applies as well to women deacons,

14

Rev. Manfred Hauke (Germany), professor of patristics and dogmatic theology, Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland

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despite the many doctrinal statements clarifying the fact that they are separate and distinct orders.7 Second, but related to the first, they present the so-called “iconic argument,” which argues a woman cannot image Christ. The concept implicitly denies Christian doctrine regarding the Resurrection, and the teaching that all persons are made in the image and likeness of God. The fact that papal teaching against women priests does not apply to women deacons is easy to misunderstand. From the Middle Ages until Vatican II, the diaconate seemed to be inextricably connected to the priesthood, a belief rooted in the medieval practice of the cursus honorum (course of honor).

The cursus honorum had strict stages through which a man went on the way to priesthood: tonsure, lector, porter, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. Once the cursus honorum became law, and until Vatican II, generally speaking, only men on the path to priesthood were ordained as deacons.

The memory of the custom of the cursus honorum supports a theory called the “unicity of orders.” The argument is that because the Church teaches that women cannot be ordained as priests, therefore they cannot be ordained as deacons. As the contemporary discussion continues, another false argument again circulates, stating that the women deacons of history were not ordained, only “blessed.” However, given that the same rituals were used, that argument seems to indicate that neither were male deacons ordained.

Conclusions Considering the facts that women deacons are historically documented, doctrinally possible, and pastorally necessary, it would seem the Church could move to restore women to the ordained diaconate. However, the resurgence of the argument that women cannot image Christ, despite the Church’s constant teaching that all are made in the image and likeness of God, is troubling and seems to deny women their full humanity. Such supports a dismissal of women’s intelligence

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that perdures in some societies and combines with superstitious blood taboos that argue women cannot participate in or even be near sacred ceremonies.

Will the Church ordain women deacons? The doctrinal decision on the restoration of women to the ordained diaconate has yet to be made, but the Church as a whole seems to want women to be recognized as full participants, and it does not want to wait any longer.

Endnotes 1 Roger Gryson, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, trans. J. Laporte and M. L. Hall (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1976), p. 113. Translation of Le ministére des femmes dans L’Église ancienne, Recherches et synthèses, section d’histoire 4 (Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1972) 2 Aimé-Georges Martimort, Deaconesses: An Historical Study, trans. K. D. Whitehead (San

Francisco: Ignatius, 1986); Les Diaconesses: Essai Historique (Rome: C.L.V.-Edizioni Liturgiche, 1982).

3 Martimort, Les Diaconesses, p. 249.

4 The Fifteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, http://www.synod.va/content/ synod2018/en/fede-discernimentovocazione/final-document-of-thesynod-of-bishops-on-young-people-faith-an.html 5 http://www.sinodoamazonico. va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/ documents/final-document-of-theamazon-synod.html 6 Asumo el pedido de rellamar a la comisión o quizás abrirla con nuevos miembros para seguir estudiando cómo existía en la Iglesia primitiva el diaconado permanente. Ustedes saben que llegaron a un acuerdo entre todos que no era claro. Yo entregué esto a las religiosas, a la Unión general de religiosas que fue la que me pidió hacer la investigación, se lo entregué, y ahora cada uno de los teólogos está con su línea buscando,

investigando en eso. Yo voy a procurar rehacer esto con la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, y asumir nuevas personas en esta Comisión, y recojo el guante, que han puesto por allí: “y que seamos escuchadas.”

Recojo el guante [aplausos].

Aparecieron algunas cosas que hay que reformar: la Iglesia siempre tiene que ir reformándose. http://www. vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ speeches/2019/october/documents/ papa-francesco_20191026_chiusurasinodo.html 7 For example, the recently retired Cardinal Robert Sarah wrote: “This question, nevertheless, was settled definitively by Saint John Paul II in the Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio sacerdotalis. ...” Cardinal Robert Sarah, From the Depths of Our Hearts, trans. Michael J. Miller, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2020, pp. 87-88; Des Profondeur de nos coeurs, Paris: Libraries Arthème Fayard, 2020.

Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion in Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She holds the PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, master’s degrees from St. John’s University (NY), Long Island University (NY), and Boston University, and a baccalaureate degree from Marymount College (Tarrytown, NY). Her sponsored research focuses on the history of women in Christianity. She has published hundreds of essays, reviews, and journal articles, as well as monographs on the question of Catholic women deacons. Her work has been published in a variety of outlets and in several languages, including recent articles in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Laval théologique et philosophique, Asian Horizons, Review of Religious Research, Theological Studies, Concilium, and the Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Her newest book, Women: Icons of Christ, addresses the historically documented diaconal ministries of women. She is founding co-chair of the Catholic Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion. In August 2016, Pope Francis named her to the Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women.

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Increased Incidence and Mortality of COVID-19 among the U.S. Socially Vulnerable Population: Findings From the Early Phase of the Pandemic Ibraheem M. Karaye, MD, DrPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Professions, School of Health Professions and Human Services, Hofstra University INTRODUCTION The increased incidence and mortality rate of COVID-19 among minority populations in the U.S., particularly African Americans, has captivated significant public attention (Calma, 2020b; Collins, 2020; Eligon et al., 2020). An analysis of available data has shown that African Americans are three times more likely to contract COVID-19 and six times more likely to die from the disease than whites (Thebault, Tran, & Williams, 2020).

For example, in Houston, Texas, where African Americans comprise 22.5% of the population, they make up 57% of deaths due to COVID-19 (Bludau, 2020). In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, African Americans 16

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constitute 26% of the population but account for 70% of COVID-19-related deaths (Thebault, Tran, & Williams, 2020). In Louisiana, 70% of deaths from the disease are among African Americans, although they constitute only 32% of the state’s population (Thebault, Tran, & Williams, 2020).

Traditionally marginalized populations like racial minorities, persons with disability, the elderly, those living in poverty, and undocumented immigrants have historically borne the brunt of the health impacts of disasters because social factors predispose them to poor health outcomes (Karaye, Ross, & Horney, 2019; Palaiologou et al., 2019;

Rufat et al., 2015). For example, low socioeconomic status is associated with low per capita income, uninsured medical status, and poor access to health care, which may collectively increase the risk of adverse outcomes (Calma, 2020a; Calma, 2020b; Collins, Bhupal, & Doty, 2019; Galea, 2020; Link, 2008; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. DHHS), 2019). Specific to COVID-19, residential overcrowding, lack of workplace protections, and inability to telework may limit adherence to physical distancing guidelines among socially vulnerable groups (Perry, Rothwell, & Harshbarger, 2018; Ray, 2020). Poor environmental conditions from historically racial-structured

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redlining of neighborhoods may predispose socially vulnerable individuals to chronic respiratory conditions (e.g., asthma), hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, which may worsen an already poor medical prognosis when exposed to COVID-19 (Barnes et al., 2007; Collins, 2020; Fang, Karakiulakis, & Roth, 2020; U.S. DHHS, 2018).

In order to guide public health policy and resource allocation, empirical studies on social vulnerability and COVID-19 are warranted. Using publicly available data on COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and countylevel data on social vulnerability, this study investigates the association of social vulnerability with COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the U.S. during the early phase of the pandemic.

METHODS Data Sources and Software Data from Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) (current as of 04/19/2020) were used to estimate U.S. incidence and mortality for COVID-19. County-level publicly available data on social vulnerability for the lower 48 U.S. states were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC, 2020) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR, 2020). The TIGER file for U.S. county boundaries was downloaded from data.gov (2020).

ArcMap 10.4.1 (Redlands, California) was used for the analysis.

Social Vulnerability Index Social factors like language, per capita income, housing, transportation, and employment status predict to a great extent the ability of individuals and communities to follow social distancing guidelines issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Bonanno et al., 2007). To enable the identification of

communities most likely to require support before, during, and after a disaster or emergency, the CDC developed a Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), which includes 15 sociodemographic variables grouped into four themes. The socioeconomic theme is composed of four variables: % below poverty, % unemployed, per capita income, and % with no high school diploma. The household composition and disability theme includes: % aged 65 years or older, % aged 17 years or younger, % civilian with a disability, and % single-parent households. The theme on minority status and language includes two variables: % minority and % speak English “less than well.” Finally, the theme on housing and transportation is made up of five variables: % multiunit structures, % mobile homes, % crowding, % no vehicle, and % group quarters. The SVI is scored from 0 to 1, with larger values denoting higher social vulnerability. Additional information on SVI is provided elsewhere (CDC, 2020; Flanagan et al., 2011).

Spatial Statistical Analysis Associations between social vulnerability and incidence and mortality due to COVID-19 were assessed using ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regressions. In the first instance, incidence of COVID-19 was fitted as the outcome variable and social vulnerability as the predictor, while in the second instance, mortality due to COVID-19 was fitted as the outcome variable and social vulnerability as the predictor variable. In an ordinary least squares regression, bivariate relationships are assumed to be uniform across all U.S. counties, as one parameter is estimated for each variable.

However, in a geographically weighted regression, local geographic variations in relationships are accounted for by

Using publicly available data on COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and county-level data on social vulnerability, this study investigates the association of social vulnerability with COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the U.S. during the early phase of the pandemic.

estimating parameters for all sample points (i.e., counties) across the U.S. Both models were set at fixed kernel types and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) bandwidths. To identify spatial locations where the models predicted COVID-19 incidence more accurately, I generated a choropleth map using the local coefficient of determination (R2).

Results were summarized using tables and choropleth maps with hot/cold rendering scheme on model residuals.

RESULTS As of April 19, 2020, 726,697 persons have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the U.S. The highest incidence of the disease (2,815 per 100,000) was in Rockland County, New York, and the lowest (0 cases per 100,000) was in Anderson and Kearny Counties (Kansas); Baraga and Ontonagon Counties (Michigan); Bath, Bland, Dickenson, Falls Church, Grayson, Highland, Martinsville, and Patrick Counties (Virginia); Boundary and Lewis Counties (Idaho); Brule, Butte, and Kingsbury Counties (South Hofstra HORIZONS t Spring 2021

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Dakota); Cedar and Logan Counties (Nebraska); Hancock County (Tennessee); Hidalgo County (New Mexico); Lincoln County (Nevada); Mercer County (North Dakota); Pepin County (Wisconsin); Platte County (Wyoming); and Texas County (Missouri).

Figure 1.

Incidence of COVID-19 in U.S. Counties

Overall, the risk of contracting COVID-19 was highest in New York, Georgia, New Jersey, and Louisiana (at least 1,525 per 100,000) (Figure 1).

Mortality From COVID-19 In the U.S., 37,601 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 (current as of April 19, 2020), with the highest mortality in New York City, New York (806 per 100,000). When aggregated by state, mortality was highest in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Louisiana (at least 83 per 100,000) (Figure 2).

COVID-19 and Social Vulnerability Social vulnerability was associated with increased risk of COVID-19. A single unit increase in SVI was associated with an 8.4% increased risk of COVID-19 (Coef. = 0.084; p-value<0.05). Social vulnerability was also found to predict mortality from COVID-19 (Coef. = 0.005; p-value<0.05). The risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 (due to underlying social vulnerabilities) was found to be highest in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Louisiana (n≥7) (Table 1; Figure 3).

Figure 1. Incidence of COVID-19 in U.S. Counties

Figure 2.

Distribution of COVID-19 Mortality in U.S. Counties

19

Figure 2. Distribution of COVID-19 Mortality in U.S. Counties

18

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Counties were grouped into two ordinal categories based on the strength of association between social vulnerability and risk of COVID-19 infection.

Category I counties have the highest risk of social vulnerability-associated COVID-19 infection since they lie above 2.5 standard deviations from the mean (Table 2); Category II counties lie between 1.5 and 2.5 standard deviations from the mean as shown in Table 3.

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DISCUSSION Since the identification of a COVID-19 index case on U.S. soil in January 2020, the disease has infected more than 700,000 Americans (as of April 19, 2020), predominantly from disadvantaged communities (Calma (2020a); Calma (2020b); CSSE, 2020; Einhorn, 2020). The findings from this study demonstrate increased incidence of and mortality from COVID-19 among socially vulnerable populations and highlights the need for addressing social justice-related conditions that may be linked to health inequities. Underserved populations are often un- or underinsured and would have to pay out-ofpocket for their medical care, making them less likely to seek COVID-19 screening and treatment (Link, 2008; Collins, Bhupal, & Doty, 2019; Calma (2020a); Calma (2020b); Galea, 2020; U.S. DHHS, 2019). Low income and traditionally marginalized communities are also more likely to reside in crowded neighborhoods and substandard housing created from redlining and structural racism (Ray, 2020; Perry, Rothwell, & Harshbarger, 2018). Such neighborhoods also may have poorer air quality and residents may be more likely to be exposed to environmental health conditions such as mold, asbestos, lead, and pest infestations that are associated with higher prevalence of asthma, obesity, hypertension, chronic respiratory disease, and other comorbidities that increase the likelihood of contracting and dying from COVID-19 (Barnes et al., 2007; Collins, 2020; Fang, Karakiulakis, & Roth, 2020; U.S. DHHS, 2018).

Teleworking is an effective arrangement for physical distancing in the workplace, but is infeasible for many socially vulnerable populations who work forward-facing jobs, thus increasing their propensity of contracting and spreading the disease (Gould & Shierholz, 2020). Because of the fear of

Table 1. U.S. States and Counties With Increased Social Vulnerability to COVID-19 (n=89) State

Number of Counties

Counties

Alabama

2

Chambers, Wilcox

Arizona

1

Navajo

Arkansas

2

Cleburne, Lincoln

Colorado

3

Eagle, Gunnison, Morgan

DC

1

District of Columbia

Florida

1

Miami-Dade

Georgia

14

Baker, Clay, Turner, Wilcox, Worth, Calhoun, Dougherty, Early, Lee, Mitchell, Randolph, Sumter, Terrell, Upson

Idaho

1

Blaine

Illinois

1

Cook

Indiana

3

Franklin, Marion, Decatur

Iowa

4

Louisa, Tama, Washington, Muscatine

Kansas

1

Coffey

Kentucky

2

Butler, Jackson

Louisiana

12

Assumption, Bienville, Plaquemines, Caddo, De Soto, Iberville, Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist

Massachusetts

3

Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk

Michigan

3

Macomb, Oakland, Wayne

Mississippi

1

Wilkinson

Montana

2

Toole, Golden Valley

Nebraska

1

Hall

New Jersey

10

Bergen, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Union, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset

New Mexico

1

McKinley

New York

7

New York, Orange, Nassau, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester

North Carolina

2

Northampton, Wayne

North Dakota

1

Slope

Ohio

2

Marion, Pickaway

Oklahoma

1

Greer

South Carolina

1

Clarendon

South Dakota

1

Minnehaha

Texas

2

Moore, Donley

Utah

1

Summit

Virginia

1

Harrisonburg City

Washington

1

Yakima

Tennessee

Vermont

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Table 2. U.S. States and Counties With Increased Risk of COVID-19 (GWR Model; n=52; Std. Resid. >2.5 SD) County

State

Incidence (per 100,000)

36119

Westchester

New York

2395.747

517.8931

01017

Chambers

Alabama

721.7177

Louisiana

553.4719

05079

Lincoln

Arkansas

852.2727

Iberville

Louisiana

830.4881

08037

Eagle

Colorado

876.1587

22051

Jefferson

Louisiana

1281.639

08051

Gunnison

Colorado

652.8462

22071

Orleans

Louisiana

1525.847

13037

Calhoun

Georgia

920.9889

22087

St. Bernard

Louisiana

865.7184

13095

Dougherty

Georgia

1601.937

22089

St. Charles

Louisiana

917.1375

13099

Early

Georgia

1619.235

22093

St. James

Louisiana

1028.631

13177

Lee

Georgia

906.9085

22095

St. John the Baptist

Louisiana

1487.032

13205

Mitchell

Georgia

969.6748

26125

Oakland

Michigan

478.7752

13243

Randolph

Georgia

2080.26

26163

Wayne

Michigan

770.0605

13261

Sumter

Georgia

1063.542

28157

Wilkinson

Mississippi

637.3117

13273

Terrell

Georgia

1711.405

30101

Toole

Montana

612.3311

13293

Upson

Georgia

645.8967

31079

Hall

Nebraska

643.8153

16013

Blaine

Idaho

2063.333

34003

Bergen

New Jersey

1304.76

18031

Decatur

Indiana

625.0235

34017

Hudson

New Jersey

1500.615

19115

Louisa

Iowa

1603.987

34027

Morris

New Jersey

810.0113

19171

Tama

Iowa

729.7971

34031

Passaic

New Jersey

1581.425

19183

Washington

Iowa

514.4548

34039

Union

New Jersey

1610.343

20031

Coffey

Kansas

562.4159

36059

Nassau

New York

2150.452

39101

Marion

Ohio

1510.147

36061

New York

New York

1625.644

39129

Pickaway

Ohio

516.6191

County

State

Incidence (per 100,000)

21031

Butler

Kentucky

481.4038

22017

Caddo

Louisiana

22031

De Soto

22047

FIPS

FIPS

36071

Orange

New York

1692.212

40055

Greer

Oklahoma

962.8852

36079

Putnam

New York

791.2937

46099

Minnehaha

South Dakota

660.6812

36087

Rockland

New York

2815.012

48129

Donley

Texas

701.6473

36103

Suffolk

New York

1815.25

49043

Summit

Utah

749.7924

Std. Resid.: Standard Residual; GWR: Geographically Weighted Regression

deportation and retaliation, undocumented immigrants, who may live in segregated neighborhoods and share the social attributes previously described, may also be less likely to present themselves to healthcare facilities for COVID-19 testing or treatment. In the event they are diagnosed with the disease, they are also less likely to isolate and observe physical distancing as they have to continue earning wages to support their families or are employed in essential 20

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service industries. In essence, racial and ethnic minorities and those who are socially vulnerable in other ways are more likely to contract and die from COVID-19 due to prevailing social conditions, which predispose them to poor health.

To improve the health and well-being of minorities in America, interventions must address the social determinants of health, which make minorities particularly vulnerable to natural and

technological disasters and public health emergencies (Galea, 2020; Pavlos, Bartlett, & Galea, 2020).

Recently, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201) (2020) provided some appropriations, including free COVID-19 testing, temporary paid emergency leave and unemployment insurance, food security initiatives, and increased Medicaid funding to states. The Department of Labor has issued guidance on state unemployment insurance programs,

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permitting the provision of COVID-19-related unemployment benefits (116th Congress, 2020). The Department of Agriculture has agreed to the continued provision of summer meals during school closure (116th Congress, 2020).

Figure 3. Association Between Social Vulnerability and COVID-19 in U.S. Counties

There are several limitations to this study. First, the hierarchical model of the SVI is associated with lower precision and weaker internal validity (Rufat et al., 2019) and is sensitive to the weighting scheme chosen (Tate, 2012). However, I chose the index because of its higher accuracy compared to other models (Bakkensen, Fox-Lent, Read & Linkov, 2017; Tate, 2012). It is also publicly Figure 3. Association Between Social Vulnerability and COVID-19 in U.S. Counties available and has been cited insights. Proceedings of the American CONCLUSION Thoracic Society, 4(1), 58-68. https://doi. more than 400 times in the literature Because of underlying social org/10.1513/pats.200607-146JG (Flanagan et al., 2011). Second, the vulnerabilities, minorities are often Benfer, E.A., & Wiley, L.F. (2020) Health bivariate relationships between disproportionately affected by disasters justice strategies to combat COVID-19: COVID-19 incidence or mortality with and emergencies. Using publicly Protecting vulnerable communities during SVI were assessed without recourse to available data on COVID-19 incidence, a pandemic. Health Affairs. Retrieved potential confounding variables. In my mortality, and social vulnerability, from https://www.healthaffairs.org/ assessment, a majority of the potential I found increased incidence and do/10.1377/hblog20200319.757883/full/ confounders were already included as mortality from COVID-19 among Bludau, J. (2020). Is COVID-19 part of the 15 variables that constitute socially vulnerable populations in the disproportionately impacting black the SVI, and further adjustment may U.S. during the early phase of the residents in Houston? Here’s what experts result in multi-collinearity. To account pandemic. Strategies to mitigate the say. KHOU 11. Retrieved from https:// for this assumption, I added countydisparate burden of the disease on www.khou.com/article/news/health/ level socio-demographic covariates to coronavirus/is-covid-19traditionally marginalized communities disproportionately-killing-blackthe model (e.g., percent persons aged must consider social factors like americans-in-houston-heres-what-experts65 years or older, percent civilians with housing quality, socioeconomic status, 21 say/285-a4044110-d8e9-44bf-b5c3disability, population density) and transportation, and income that produce 511752b387f6 found results similar to the original poor health.

Bonanno, G. A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A., bivariate model. Finally, the data from & Vlahov, D. (2007). What predicts References which this study was conducted were psychological resilience after disaster?

Bakkensen, L. A., Fox-Lent, C., Read, L. downloaded on April 19, 2020. With The role of demographics, resources, and K., & Linkov, I. (2017). Validating continuing rise in incidence of the life stress. Journal of Consulting and resilience and vulnerability indices in the disease, periodic revision of the Clinical Psychology, 75(5), 671. context of natural disasters. Risk Analysis. analysis may be warranted to identify, 37(5):982-1004.

Calma, J. (2020a). Air pollution could in real time, counties where socially Barnes, K. C., Grant, A. V., Hansel, N. N., make the COVID-19 pandemic worse for vulnerable communities are at the Gao, P., & Dunston, G. M. (2007). some people: Pollution piles on top of highest risk.

African Americans with asthma: Genetic other risk factors. The Verge. Retrieved

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Table 3.

U.S. States and Counties With Increased Risk of COVID-19 (n=37; Std. Resid. 1.5<SD<2.5) FIPS

County

State

Incidence (per 100,000)

21109

Jackson

Kentucky

322.6048466

22007

Assumption

Louisiana

653.2364899

22013

Bienville

Louisiana

490.8994789

22075

Plaquemines

Louisiana

672.5007544

25017

Middlesex

Massachusetts

514.7983588

25021

Norfolk

Massachusetts

517.7036539

25025

Suffolk

Massachusetts

957.3246657

26099

Macomb

Michigan

486.400022

30037

Golden Valley

Montana

365.408039

34013

Essex

New Jersey

1239.838543

34023

Middlesex

New Jersey

924.0517682

34025

Monmouth

New Jersey

731.744762

34029

Ocean

New Jersey

749.0291278

34035

Somerset

New Jersey

694.0602066

35031

McKinley

New Mexico

498.8299915

37131

Northampton

North Carolina

359.287584

37191

Wayne

North Carolina

306.9901162

01131

Wilcox

Alabama

433.8185674

04017

Navajo

Arizona

407.4862068

05023

Cleburne

Arkansas

280.9101489

08087

Morgan

Colorado

505.7107472

11001

District of Columbia

District of Columbia

377.7546975

12086

Miami-Dade

Florida

332.9112899

13007

Baker

Georgia

526.6622778

13061

Clay

Georgia

705.716302

13287

Turner

Georgia

638.6975579

13315

Wilcox

Georgia

486.3925883

13321

Worth

Georgia

587.7413938

17031

Cook

Illinois

396.0015013

18047

Franklin

Indiana

391.0712716

18097

Marion

Indiana

375.7067828

19139

Muscatine

Iowa

412.5257829

38087

Slope

North Dakota

400

45027

Clarendon

South Carolina

323.0108164

48341

Moore

Texas

472.7793696

51660

Harrisonburg City

Virginia

439.4899653

53077

Yakima

Washington

320.4808808

Std. Resid.: Standard Residual; GWR: Geographically Weighted Regression 22

Hofstra HORIZONS t Spring 2021

from https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/19/ 21186653/coronavirus-covid-19-air-pollutionvulnerable-lung-disease-pandemic Calma, J. (2020b). America set up black communities to be harder hit by COVID-19.

Science. Retrieved from https://www. theverge.com/2020/ 4/8/21213974/african-americans-covid-19coronavirus-race-disparities Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020). CDC SVI 2016 Documentation. Retrieved from https:// svi.cdc.gov/Documents/Data/2016_SVI_ Data/SVI2016Documentation.pdf Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (2020). Social Vulnerability Index.

Retrieved from https://svi.cdc.gov/data-andtools-download.html Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry/Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Service Program. Social Vulnerability Index (2020). Retrieved from https://svi.cdc.gov/ data-and-tools-download.html Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). (2020). COVID-19 case counts.

Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved from https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id =628578697fb24d8ea4c32fa0c5ae1843 Collins, S. (2020). The Trump administration blames Covid-19 black mortality rates on poor health. It should blame its policies. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-andpolitics/2020/4/8/21213383/coronavirusblack-americans-trump-administration -high-covid-19-death-rate Collins, S., Bhupal, H., & Doty, M. (2019).

Health insurance coverage eight years after the ACA: Fewer uninsured Americans and shorter coverage gaps, but more underinsured. Commonwealth Fund.

Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.26099/ penv-q932 Data.gov. (2019). U.S. county boundaries.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/ dataset/u-s-county-boundaries Einhorn, E. (2020). African Americans may be dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate.

Better data is essential, experts say. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www. nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/africanamericans-may-be-dying-covid-19-higherrate-better-n1178011

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Eligon, J., Burch, A. D., Searcey, D., & Oppel Jr, R. A. (2020). Black Americans face alarming rates of coronavirus infection in some states. The New York Times, 7.

Fang, L., Karakiulakis, G., & Roth, M. (2020). Are patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at increased risk for COVID-19 infection? The Lancet.

Respiratory Medicine.

Flanagan, B. E., Gregory, E. W., Hallisey, E. J., Heitgerd, J. L., & Lewis, B. (2011). A social vulnerability index for disaster management. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 8(1).

Galea, S. (2020). Closing the health gap to fight coronavirus. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/ articles/2020-03-20/payments-toamericans-help-close-the-health-gapand-fight-coronavirus Gould, E., & Shierholz, H. (2020).

Not everybody can work from home: Black and Hispanic workers are less likely to be able to telework. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.epi. org/blog/black-and-hispanic-workersare-much-less-likely-to-be-able-to-workfrom-home/ Karaye, I. M., Ross, A. D., & Horney, J. A. (2019). Self-rated mental and physical health of U.S. Gulf Coast residents.

Journal of Community Health, 1-8.

Link, B. G. (2008). Epidemiological sociology and the social shaping of population health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 49(4), 367-384.

Palaiologou, P., Ager, A. A., NielsenPincus, M., Evers, C. R., & Day, M. A. (2019). Social vulnerability to large wildfires in the western USA. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 99-116.

Pavlos, C. Bartlett, C., Galea, S. (2020).

Slowing the spread of COVID-19 the right way Common Wealth. Retrieved from https://commonwealthmagazine. org/opinion/slowing-the-spread-of-covid19-9-the-right-way/. Accessed 17th Jun 2020 Perry, A. M., Rothwell, J., & Harshbarger, D. (2018). The devaluation of assets in black neighborhoods. Brookings.

Retrieved from https://www.brookings. edu/research/devaluation-of-assets-inblack-neighborhoods/ Ray, R. (2020). Why are blacks dying at higher rates from COVID-19? Brookings.

Retrieved from https://www.brookings. edu/blog/fixgov/2020/04/09/why-areblacks-dying-at-higher-rates-fromcovid-19/ Rufat, S., Eric, T., Emrich, C. T., & Antolini, F. (2019). How valid are social vulnerability models? Ann Am Assoc Geogr, 1-23.

implications for measurement.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 14, 470-486.

Tate, E. (2012). Social vulnerability indices: A comparative assessment using uncertainty and sensitivity analysis.

Natural Hazards, 63(2):325-347 Thebault, R., Tran, A. B., & Williams, V. (2020). The coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at an alarmingly high rate. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/ nation/2020/04/07/coronavirus-isinfecting-killing-black-americans-analarmingly-high-rate-post-analysisshows/?arc404=true U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Minority Health.

(2018). Asthma and African Americans.

Retrieved from https://minorityhealth.hhs. gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=15 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Minority Health.

(2019). Profile: Black/African Americans. Retrieved from https:// minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse. aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=61 116th Congress. (2020). Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201).

Retrieved from https://www.congress. gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/ 6201/text

Rufat, S., Tate, E., Burton, C. G., & Maroof, A. S. (2015). Social vulnerability to floods: Review of case studies and

Ibraheem M. Karaye is assistant professor in the Department of Health Professions at Hofstra University. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher and adjunct assistant professor in the epidemiology program at the University of Delaware. His research uses novel statistical and spatial methods to study disaster epidemiology, the health effects of mass trauma and conflict, health disparities, and global health. Projects have included an exploration of the physical and mental health of a large representative sample of the entire U.S. Gulf Coast population, as well as studies assessing risks to environmental contamination and barriers to essential medical care such as dialysis after disasters. Recently, Dr. Karaye utilized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to assess the impact of social vulnerability on the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Karaye attended medical school at Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He holds a Master of Public Health (epidemiology) and a Doctor of Public Health (epidemiology and environmental health) from Texas A&M University, where his research leveraged spatial statistical methods to describe hurricane evacuation shelter distribution and capacity in the Houston-Galveston Metropolitan Statistical Area after Hurricane Harvey.

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Communicating Across Cultures Kara Alaimo, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations, The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, Hofstra University

The coronavirus, which emerged in China and spread rapidly across six continents, reminded the world that, as former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan used to say, today’s problems no longer have passports. It was a powerful

example to many people in the field of communication of how important it is to communicate effectively with people from different countries and cultures. The dramatic shift to work from home also reinforced for many professionals that it is possible to successfully collaborate with partners remotely, which I believe will significantly increase

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international cooperation across a range of disciplines. It was therefore no surprise to me that sales of the first edition of my book Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication (Routledge, 2017) increased significantly last year.

The book takes readers on a tour of the world, explaining how to adapt their messages, strategies, and tactics when working in each of the world’s 10 cultural clusters. It also discusses how to work as part of a global team.

The pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have also underlined the importance of effective crisis management. In December, the second edition of my book was published. In addition to updates to all of the country and culture profiles, the new edition includes an additional chapter on global crisis communication. It focuses on many of the new issues that have emerged for practitioners in recent years, including the increased speed with which crises must be handled on social media, fake news, Twitter wars, increased political polarization, the new

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expectation that businesses should articulate political stances, and backlash from employees and endorsers for those stances. This material is also the subject of Hofstra University’s new online MA in Public Relations program, which I helped launch in September. The program has a concentration in Reputation and Crisis Management, which is designed to prepare students to meet the significant industry demand for practitioners who are skilled at responding to these new challenges.

As part of the research for both editions of my book, I conducted interviews with senior communication executives in more than 30 countries. In this article, I will discuss some of the key questions I learned you should ask when communicating professionally with people from other cultures.

How is “risky communication” viewed?

When communicating with colleagues in countries that have been influenced

by Confucianism – such as China, Japan, and South Korea – you should be aware of a concept scholars call “risky communication” (Yu & Wen, 2003). In Confucian culture, people are often taught from a young age that talking about a problem makes the problem worse. Therefore, according to this tradition, the best thing to do when you have a problem is to not tell anyone.

By contrast, in Nordic countries – such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark – there is an expectation for radical openness and transparency. Charlotte Erkhammar, chief executive officer of the Stockholm-based strategic communications agency Kreab Worldwide, told me that once you are perceived as untrustworthy in Sweden, it can be impossible to recover your reputation.

T he pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have also underlined the importance of effective crisis management.

For example, in the past, one of the official Twitter handles of Sweden, @Sweden, was turned over to a different Swede every week to tweet whatever that person liked – completely unfiltered. When past tweeters posted questionable content – ranging from views perceived as antisemitic to the downright bizarre, such as one woman’s claims that she put urine in her breakfast cereal – managers of the Twitter handle argued that censorship would be inappropriate in their culture.

Understanding how transparency is viewed by the colleagues with whom you work will tell you whether you need to make an extra effort to identify possible issues they may not be raising – or whether you need to be especially careful to convey that you yourself are being fully forthcoming in your communications. As always, keep in mind that individuals may not exhibit the characteristics that researchers find people in their culture display in the aggregate.

Of course, businesses and governments in every part of the world have tried to cover up negative information. This is a terrible idea because I believe the truth almost always emerges – and when it does, organizations that tried to

dissemble only see their reputations damaged even further. When you need to convince a colleague to disclose information, Harlan Loeb, global chair of crisis and reputation risk at Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, told me he recommends that you use examples of situations handled by other organizations in the same country – and ideally the same product sector – to illustrate why transparency is advantageous and cover-ups are calamitous.

The Chinese government’s reluctance to initially release information about COVID-19 is an obvious example.

Another example is the case of Sanlu in China. When the manufacturer discovered in 2008 that its infant formula was contaminated, it elected not to inform parents who had already purchased the product. The parents went on to poison their babies. Sanlu is no longer in business.

What are local concepts of reputation management?

In the United States, professionals work to maintain their personal reputations by not doing or saying things that would embarrass themselves. However, in other cultures, preserving one’s personal reputation also requires protecting the reputations of others.

In Asia, for example, the concept of “face” requires protecting your own reputation as well as the reputations of those with whom you interact. Scholars Michael Kent and Maureen Taylor (2011) explained that “in some cultures (like the mainstream United States), being perceived as clever for making a witty comment in a public situation, thereby embarrassing someone else or making him or her look foolish, is sometimes seen as being socially acceptable. In high face cultures, however, embarrassing someone else with a snide comment both makes the Hofstra HORIZONS t Spring 2021

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Stereotypes about your organization’s country of origin will also affect how people perceive and interact with you.

recipient of the comment look bad, and the person who made the comment look worse.”

The concept of face requires not only not embarrassing other people, but also not allowing others to be embarrassed in your presence. You can do this, for example, by being certain that a business partner is aware of a proposal your organization plans to make in advance of a meeting, so that your partner is not caught off guard.

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Is it more important to convey facts or emotions?

According to scholar R.S. Zaharna (1995), differences in communication styles between the West and the Arab world can be drawn back to how the English and Arabic languages evolved.

In some cultures that value face, almost nothing is more important than maintaining one’s personal reputation.

For example, scholars Ni Chen and Hugh M. Culbertson (2009) noted that “in China, loss of face is often considered to be worse than loss of a limb.”

English evolved “primarily as a means for record keeping and documentation,” she explained, and therefore English speakers expect that when you communicate, you will be precisely accurate. The same is true of other Western cultures. For example, the French and Germans are notoriously skeptical, so it is important to have facts and figures at the ready to back up your claims when communicating with people from these cultures and to be prepared for a healthy debate.

Consider how your colleagues view their personal reputations before interacting with them, since you may need to make extra efforts to ensure that “face” is preserved in Asian cultures, for example. When in doubt, however, erring on the side of not embarrassing others tends to be good global practice.

By contrast, Zaharna said, Arabic evolved orally as a means for promoting nationalism and religion. For this reason, Arabic speakers often focus on conveying emotions rather than literal facts. When discussing a heated topic with an Arabic speaker, if you do not visibly display emotion, you may not be trusted.

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Zaharna wrote that this difference in emphasis explains why English speakers will often perceive Arab communicators to be vague and even hyperbolic. Being aware of these differences can help an English speaker reinterpret information received from a colleague as simply stemming from a difference in communication styles.

How do security concerns affect local communication preferences?

Leslie Gaines-Ross, former chief reputation strategist for the global public relations firm Weber Shandwick, told me that some heads of Latin American corporations do not want their pictures posted online because they fear becoming victims of crime.

Therefore, you should never post pictures of colleagues and business partners on social media without their permission.

In other situations, colleagues may not wish to have their plans known publicly in advance. For example, when I worked in the Obama administration and my colleagues and I traveled to countries such as Lebanon, where there were significant security concerns, I

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sometimes waited until we landed in the country to announce our trips to the media, so that it would be more difficult for terrorists to target us for an attack.

Security concerns will also affect how you handle information. For example, when traveling to countries where there is a significant risk of espionage, you will want to be especially careful not to leave proprietary information behind in your hotel room, and all organizations need to be cognizant of how electronic information is protected in today’s era of cyberattacks.

It is best to ask permission from colleagues before sharing their images or information about them and to collaborate with them on how to best protect sensitive business information in their nations.

How do people set goals?

Consider whether, when your colleagues discuss goals, they are being realistic or aspirational.

Fleming Voetmann, head of public affairs and leadership communication for the global manufacturer Danfoss, observed that, in the United States, “people try to be very, very ambitious.

It’s not unusual to set yourself bold targets like going to the moon or Mars.” Americans realize that “even if we don’t go to Mars, it’s a bold ambition, and a lot of good stuff might come out of it.”

When discussing goals with your colleagues and partners, it is important to consider whether they view hitting such targets as mandatory or merely ideal. If you are leading a global team, it may make sense to discuss this question as a group and set and enforce a standard for how everyone in your unit will discuss your objectives.

What stereotypes do people have about me and my organization?

Fair or not, your partners are likely to have stereotypes about people from different countries that will influence how they interact with you and your colleagues.

For example, Judd (2013, p. 17) noted that, if you hire a Singaporean to work in a managerial position in mainland China, you may encounter issues “because some Chinese perceive Singaporeans as arrogant and may balk at such a reporting arrangement.”

Stereotypes about your organization’s country of origin will also affect how people perceive and interact with you.

For example, Rodrigo Soares, former general manager of communications at the Brazilian mining company Vale, told me that after Vale bought Canada’s largest mining company, a Canadian

newspaper ran a picture of a scantily clothed Brazilian woman at Carnival, “exposing the stereotype they had about us.” Soares said he tried to overcome this perception in his local communications.

Consider what stereotypes about your country of origin – and those of your colleagues and your organization – you may need to address when communicating with people from different countries.

Am I communicating equally with all members of my team?

Laura Liswood (2010, pp. 84-85), a former senior advisor at Goldman Sachs, warned that there may be less mentoring between colleagues who are different from one another, because people do not immediately identify with others who are not like them. Similarly, managers may offer less feedback – especially when it is negative – to colleagues from other cultures. This is because, when the person is of the same culture, “the manager can break the ice, find commonalities, or provide reassurance that will be appreciated, understood, and heard the way the manager intended,” while it is harder to predict how someone from a different culture will react.

By contrast, Voetmann said, “in Asia, no one would make going to Mars a success criteria unless they were 100 percent sure they could get there.” This is because, in some parts of Asia, failure is considered to be deeply shameful and unacceptable (Judd, 2013, p. 31).

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However, it is important to not afford more access to those who are similar to you and to provide constructive feedback to all members of your team, since such information is critical to a person’s ability to learn and improve.

Which communication mediums do my colleagues prefer?

Gary Weaver, executive director of the Intercultural Management Institute at American University, warned that, in the United States and northern Europe, professionals tend to communicate in writing, while in other parts of the world, it is more common to discuss issues verbally, either in person or on the phone (Judd, 2013). (I learned this the hard way when I worked at the United Nations, and my colleagues simply ignored many of my long emails.)

Consider the platforms with which your colleagues are most comfortable – and on which they are most effective – when deciding how to communicate with your global team and partners.

Am I using language that everyone can understand?

Glenn Goldberg, chief executive officer of Parallel Communications Group, a global agency that specializes in

business-to-business communications, told me that while people in the United States often use baseball metaphors – saying, for example, that someone struck out or that an idea was a home run – many people in other countries truly do not understand these references.

Similarly, some words have different connotations in different cultures. For example, in the United States, saying that “we are on a parallel course” indicates agreement with a proposal, while in Japan, it indicates disagreement, because parallel lines never meet. Additionally, humor does not typically translate well across cultures (Samovar et. al, 2013).

When communicating with global colleagues and partners, it is therefore usually best to use simple and direct language.

References Chen, N., & Culbertson, H. M. (2009).

Public relations in mainland China: An adolescent with growing pains.

In K. Sriramesh & D. Vercic (Eds.), The global public relations handbook: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.) (pp. 175-197). New York, NY: Routledge.

Judd, E. (2013). Building and managing a global public affairs function. Washington, DC: Foundation for Public Affairs. Retrieved from http://pac.org/wp-content/uploads/ Building-and-Managing-a-Global-PAFunction.pdf Kent, M., & Taylor, M. (2011). How intercultural communication theory informs public relations practice in global settings. In N. Bardhan & C. K. Weaver (Eds.), Public relations in global cultural contexts: Multiparadigmatic perspectives (pp. 50-76).

New York, NY: Routledge.

Liswood, L. (2010). The loudest duck: Moving beyond diversity while embracing differences to achieve success at work. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2013).

Communication between cultures (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Yu, T. H., & Wen, W. C. (2003). Crisis communication in Chinese culture: A case study in Taiwan. Asian Journal of Communication, 13 (2), 50-64.

Zaharna, R. S. (1995). Understanding cultural preferences of Arab communication patterns. Public Relations Review, 21 (3), 241-255.

Kara Alaimo is associate professor of journalism, media studies, and public relations and coordinator of the online Master of Arts in Public Relations program (concentration in reputation and crisis management) at The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University. Her research focuses on international and political communication. Dr. Alaimo previously served as Treasury spokesperson for international affairs in the administration of President Barack Obama and as a communicator for the United Nations and the City of New York during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration. She has written numerous op-eds for CNN Opinion and Bloomberg Opinion, and her research has been published in academic journals such as the International Journal of Communication, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Affairs, Social Media & Society, and Case Studies in Strategic Communication. In 2017, she received the Titan of the Future award at the World Communication Forum gala in Geneva and was named one of the 50 Game-Changers of PR by PR News. Her Twitter handle is @karaalaimo.

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Hofstra HORIZONS

Hofstra at a Glance LOCATION Hempstead, Long Island, 25 miles east of New York City.

Telephone: 516-463-6600 CHARACTER A private, nonsectarian, coeducational university.

PRESIDENT Stuart Rabinowitz, JD COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS Academic Health Sciences Center (Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell; Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies at Hofstra University; School of Health Professions and Human Services); Frank G. Zarb School of Business; Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science; Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs; School of Education; School of Humanities; Fine and Performing Arts; School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics); Honors College; Lawrence Herbert School of Communication; Maurice A. Deane School of Law; Hofstra University Continuing Education FACULTY There are 1,154 faculty members, of whom 471 are full-time.

Ninety-two percent of full-time faculty hold the highest degree in their fields.

STUDENT BODY Undergraduate enrollment of 6,120. Total University enrollment, including graduate, School of Law, and School of Medicine, is 10,444. Undergraduate male-female ratio is 45-to-55.

PROGRAM OPTIONS Bachelor’s degrees are offered in about 165 program options.

Graduate degrees, including PhD, EdD, PsyD, AuD, JD, and MD, advanced certificates and professional diplomas, are offered in about 175 program options.

THE HOFSTRA CAMPUS With 117 buildings and 244 acres, Hofstra is a member of the American Public Gardens Association.

LIBRARIES The Hofstra libraries contain 800,000+ volumes and provide 24/7 online access to more than 100,000 full-text journals and 200,000 electronic books.

ACCESSIBILITY Hofstra is 100% program accessible to persons with disabilities.

JANUARY AND SUMMER SESSIONS Hofstra offers a January session and three summer sessions between May and August.

Trustees of Hofstra University As of March 2021

OFFICERS Donald M. Schaeffer, Chair Martha S. Pope, Vice Chair Michael Roberge,* Vice Chair David S. Mack,* Secretary Stuart Rabinowitz, President Alan J. Bernon,* Immediate Past Chair MEMBERS Kenneth Brodlieb Susan Catalano Michael DeDomenico* Michael P. Delaney* Arno H. Fried Leo A. Guthart Peter S. Kalikow* Arthur J. Kremer Diana E. Lake* Randy Levine* Elizabeth McCaul Stella Mendes* Janis M. Meyer* John D. Miller* Joanne Minieri* Marilyn B. Monter* Julio A. Portalatin* Samuel Ramos* Robert Rosenthal* Debra A. Sandler* Thomas J. Sanzone* Michael Seiman* Leonard H. Shapiro Joseph Sparacio* Steven C. Witkoff* DELEGATES George A. Giuliani, Speaker of the Faculty William Caniano, Chair, University Senate Executive Committee Craig Burnett, Chair, University Senate Planning and Budget Committee Hillary Serota Needle,* President, Alumni Organization Tara Stark, President, Student Government Association Alexa Osner, Vice President, Student Government Association Wilbur Breslin, Trustee Emeritus John J. Conefry, Jr., Chair Emeritus Helene Fortunoff, Chair Emerita Lawrence Herbert,* Trustee Emeritus Florence Kaufman, Trustee Emerita Walter B. Kissinger, Trustee Emeritus Ann M. Mallouk,* Chair Emerita Frank G. Zarb,* Chair Emeritus *Hofstra alumni

Nondiscrimination Policy Hofstra University is committed to extending equal opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national or ethnic origin, physical or mental disability, marital or veteran status (characteristics collectively referred to as “Protected Characteristic”) in employment and in the conduct and operation of Hofstra University’s educational programs and activities, including admissions, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other schooladministered programs. This statement of nondiscrimination is in compliance with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, the Age Discrimination Act, and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations relating to nondiscrimination (“Equal Opportunity Laws”). The Equal Rights and Opportunity Officer is the University’s official responsible for coordinating its overall adherence to Equal Opportunity Laws. Questions or concerns regarding any of these laws, other aspects of Hofstra’s Nondiscrimination Policy, or regarding Title IX as it relates to reports against employees or other nonstudents, should be directed to the Equal Rights and Opportunity Officer, who also serves as the Title IX Officer for Employee Matters, at HumanResources@Hofstra.edu, 516-463-6859, 205 Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549. Student-related questions or concerns regarding Title IX should be directed to the Title IX Officer for Student Issues at StudentTitleIX@Hofstra.edu, 516-463-5841, 127 Wellness & Campus Living Center, Hempstead, NY 11549. For additional contacts and related policies and resources, see hofstra.edu/eoe.

Hofstra HORIZONS t Spring 2021 29

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Communicating Across Cultures

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