Institutional Logics as Resource: University Advocacy for Undocumented Immigrant Students

• In Event: 73.034 - Organizational Leadership for Social Change

Abstract

This case study portrays the ways in which one college moderated an array of internal and external pressures to pursue an inclusive organizational approach for supporting undocumented immigrant college students. Using data from newspapers, campus artifacts, and interviews with senior administrative leaders, the study’s findings portray the ways in which campus leaders purposively connected the institution’s mission and traditions to larger social and political dynamic. Further, these connections reveal both everyday administrative practices and leaders’ rhetoric that contributed to the legitimacy of the university acting in an inclusive manner towards undocumented immigrant students.

Authors

• Cassie L. Barnhardt, The University of Iowa

• Kimberly Ann Reyes, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Angela Vidal-Rodriguez, Northeastern Illinois University