College Prof/Students’ Paper Wins Top Manuscript Award

Research Class Has Paper Published and Awarded Best in 13-State Region A journal article by Wilmington College’s Dr. Audrey Wagstaff and her students received the Central States Communication Association’s Top Manuscript Award. The Ohio Communication Journal published their article, titled “Up in Smoke”: Shaping Attitudes Toward Legalizing Marijuana in Ohio, in 2017. PICTURED: Audrey Wagstaff and her students pose with Ohio Rep. Kurt Schuring in 2016 when they shared portions of their research with the head of the state legislature’s Medical Marijuana Task Force. Wagstaff, associate professor of social science, and students in her spring 2016 Research II class worked on the paper as a hands-on learning activity and even presented some of the findings to Rep. Kurt Schuring (R-District 48) of the Ohio House of Representatives, who was the head of the legislature’s Medical Marijuana Task Force. Also, it won the Best of Class award at Walsh University’s “All Politics Is Local” conference in 2016. The student authors include: Theresa Knopf, Taylor Scott, Kayla Love, Morgan Combs, Lydia Wolcott, Katelyn Straley, Blake Carter, Dylan Sander, Lauren Brickey, Hayley Zornes, Carter Semenchuk, Kelsey Stone, Blair King and Jamika Frazier. That summer, Wagstaff and class member Knopf, who graduated in 2017, prepared the manuscript for publication and submitted it to the journal for consideration. Wagstaff explained that, after Issue 3 failed in November of 2015, they investigated a variety of background characteristics of voters to help understand attitude formation toward legalizing marijuana (for medicinal and/or general use) in Ohio. “Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, we found that a majority of our respondents (college students) believed that marijuana has medicinal benefits (74%) and actually voted to legalize it in 2015 (67%),” she said, noting the most common reason for voting against Issue 3 was the proposed “monopoly” that would have limited growing to 10 parcels. “In addition, we found that political ideology, past marijuana use and media use play an important role in shaping attitudes – and ultimately voting likelihood.” The Ohio Communication Journal published it in 2017 and nominated it for the Central States Communication Association’s Top Manuscript. While Wagstaff is unable to attend the CSCA’s awards ceremony in April, the Ohio Communication Assn. president will accept it on the WC group’s behalf and then present it to them at the annual state conference in October. The Central States Communication Association was founded in 1931 to promote the discipline of communication among college and university professors, students, and K-12 educators. Members are from 13 Midwestern states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. It is the largest regional communication in the United States and the fourth largest academic communication association in the world.