[pmiller2]

Doubtful it’s written in Word. The empty pages are because this is a document that’s intended to be printed double sided and bound. Try printing off 10 or 20 pages that way and you’ll see those empty pages serve their purpose.

[jhanschoo]

From the column alignment and page number alignment, it looks to me to be typeset to be double-sided but clipped / stapled. And I agree that most of the decisions work in favor rather than against.

I disagree with ancestor comment that the author "breaks" their figure placement; it's done so that figures can be typeset to take up either text-width or page-width, depending on which is preferable for the figure.

[pmiller2]

I doubt it's designed to be stapled or clipped, because it's a dissertation, but you're absolutely right about the figure placement. I forgot to mention that.