Recasting the Study of Legitimacy, Equity, and Resilience Through Regional Comprehensive Universities

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) serve a disproportionate share and diverse array of undergraduates attending four-year institutions. With missions of public purpose, social mobility, and civic engagement, RCUs offer a unique vantage point for studying organizational change amid significant challenges in higher education. Among these challenges are felt-needs to demonstrate legitimacy for resources, the pull to pursue prestige while extending college access, and the heightened competition to ensure long-term survival. This session recasts what we can learn about—and from—RCUs’ positioning to thrive. The research papers presented here suggest that the average RCU has strong innovative capacity and uses creative latitude to deepen college access and equity. Despite doubts about their legitimacy/survivability, RCUs contain under-appreciated forms and mechanisms of resilience.

Sub Unit

• Division J - Postsecondary Education / Division J - Section 3: Organization, Management, and Leadership

Chair

• Thomas Lee Harnisch, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Papers

• The Paradox of Prestige and Innovation Within the Regional Comprehensive University Sector - Cecilia M. Orphan, University of Denver

• Does Striving for Prestige Impede Access for Underrepresented Minorities to Public Regional Comprehensive Universities? - Matt DeMonbrun, Southern Methodist University; Jarrett B. Warshaw, Florida Atlantic University; Jon McNaughtan, Texas Tech University

• Vulnerable, Fragile, and Endangered? Examining the Financial Health and Survivability of Public Regional Comprehensive Universities - Kevin R. McClure, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

Discussant

• Christopher C. Morphew, Johns Hopkins University