1. A study aimed at breaking the stigma about Notre Dane female and her dependence of Uggs. By Priscilla Nyankson

2. The origin of these fashion forward boots is rather murky with both New Zealand and Australia claiming it as their own. UGGs date back as far as World War I as the shoe of choice for aviators and were even prevalent in rural Australia in the 1920s and thirties. By 1933, Ugg boots were being manufactured by Blue Mountains Ugg Boots. Mortels Sheepskin Factory began making the boots from the late 1950

3. In the 1960s and 70s, the boots became popular option for competitive surfers who wore the boots to keep their feet warm out of the surf Surfing really brought the boots out of New Zealand into the mainstream Western society. Surfer Brian Smith started selling the boots in the United States through the company Ugg Holdings, Inc. in 1979

4. The boots didnt become popular however until about five years ago when it exploded unto the scene as the boots of choice for trendy females in the snowy climates of the north as well as the warm weathers of the south.

5. The 2009-2010 Notre Dame yearbook revealed the latest Notre Dame trends to be the game- day wear, Claddagh ring, Sperry top-siders, Ugg and the North Face fleece amongst many other such things.

6. Uggs- since uggs were made to keep feet warm and dry on the beach. There is no reason for them to be had in the middle west snowy climate. They have ne traction in the snow because their soles are rubber and do not keep water out because their sheepskin texture. And yet, Domer women love these shoes.

7. The shoes have become stigmatized as a Notre Dame womans must have and that each woman owns at least a couple of them. This is what the study was aimed at. Breaking a Stigma about Uggs and Notre Dame females.

8. In my study I decided to test the stigma(H 0) that the average Notre Dame female owns 4 pairs of Uggs to the alternative hypothesis that they own less than that H 0 : μ = 4 H a : μ < 4

9. Population of Interest-University of Notre Dame female undergraduate student In order to run the hypothesis, a few requirements had to be met. 1. The sample must be large enough to conclude that a distribution would be approximately normally distributed 2.the sample was randomly selected from amongst the population so that everyone had an equal chance of being included in the sample

10. Once these requirements were met, pulling a sample was possible. In order to include every possible Notre Dame female in the sample a few steps were taken 1. find out how many girls are in each girl dorm 2.randomly assign girl in that dorm a number starting with the first girl in the first room on the right side of the first floor. Use a random number generator to select 20 numbers- corresponding to girls in the dorm Ask them whether or not they own Uggs (Ugg-like boots) and if so how many Repeat for each of the 14 girl dorms on campus

11. Selection Bias- it must be noted that selection Bias was encountered in the course of this study. This is because not all undergraduate female University of Notre Dame students live in the residence halls, the sample would not include any of them. However, it can be said that the sample included in the study will be large enough that that discrepancy will have little effect on the final conclusion

12. Non-response Bias- Every study has to face the problem of non-response, However because of the way this study was conducted, such was avoided. Meaning that the question was asked face to face and therefore non-response was eliminated from the study Measurement Bias- measurement bias must be anticipated in any study. However, in this study, no measurement error should be so large as to distort the conclusion.

13. The data collected from each girl dorm was then used to make the following calculations X-bar= 2.458 n=260 s=1.705 After these calculations were achieved the z statistic was then calculated z = _x-μ_z=2.458-4 z= -14.483 S 1.705 n 260

14. In order to decide whether or not to reject the stigma of 4 pairs of Uggs per Notre Dame female a level of confidence of 95% was utilized. This confidence level was the chance that we would reject the null hypothesis if it were true α(1-α) when α =.95 then -z α= -1.645 Rejection rule= reject null if z< -z α

15. Z=-14.583 < -z α =-1.645 therefore we reject the null hypothesis with a confidence level of 95% We can therefore conclude that just as stigmas are usually wrong, It is wrong to assume that the Average Notre Dame female owns 4 pairs of Uggs. She, in fact, own less than four