Redefining Prestige, Pursuing Excellence: Regional Public Universities and Mission-Centered Leadership

• In Event: Imagining Excellence: Examining, Predicting, and Projecting the Future of Prestige in Higher Education

Abstract

A dominant belief exists among scholars that all Regional Public Universities (RPUs) leaders eagerly pursue prestige and would readily abandon their missions to foster postsecondary access, regional wellbeing and student-centeredness to acquire greater prestige (Henderson, 2009; Morphew, 2002; O’Meara, 2007; Orphan, 2020). As Jenks and colleagues noted (forthcoming), many scholars who have studied RPUs have used neo-institutional theory which conceptualizes low-status institutions such as RPUs as tending to strive for prestige (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). Yet more recent work (e.g., McClure, 2018; Orphan, 2018, 2020; Orphan & Broom, 2021; Orphan & McClure, 2019; Zerquera et al., 2017) using other organizational theory frameworks including those examining institutional mission, strategy, leadership and sensemaking demonstrates that RPU leadership is much more complex and mission-centered than previously thought.

In this session, I explore how RPU sector leaders are intentionally reconceptualizing field norms around prestige to align with the RPU mission. I also share research demonstrating that despite the dominant narrative that RPUs are uncomfortable with their status and eager to pursue prestige, many in fact exhibit mission-centered leadership that pushes against dominant understandings of prestige to advance new conceptualizations of this organizational resource. I describe how RPU stakeholders are leading this field-building work despite facing significant challenges including funding disparities, public policies that are misaligned with the RPU mission, and misperceptions and deficit-based views and media portrayals of their contributions (Orphan, 2018, 2020; Orphan & Laderman, 2024).

I also explore theoretical frameworks and lenses scholars might use to explore how RPU leaders are redefining prestige including those conceptualizing organizational entrepreneurship and innovativeness (Deephouse, 1996, 1999; Garud et al., 2007). These frameworks productively disrupt neo-institutional theory’s tendency to assign overriding power to the field to dictate and shape organizational practices (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) by showing how institutions, such as RPUs, may be entrepreneurial in reshaping dominant field norms to align with their missions and goals (Garud et al., 2007). The institutional entrepreneurship framework in particular exposes how newer organizational forms leverage their newness to create new artifacts or scripts for organizational action that may resist or reshape dominant norms (Garud et al., 2007; Walker et al., 2014). RPUs are relatively new organizational forms when compared with non-RPUs, and their mission and institutional attributes stand in contrast to dominant norms about what makes a ‘good’ college, such as admissions exclusivity, traditional and basic research, and national or international engagement and fame (O’Meara, 2007; Orphan, 2020; Orphan & Supplee, 2023). There is evidence that many RPU leaders recognize their institution’s defiance of these norms, conceptualizing their institution’s mission to foster access and student-centeredness as an alternative form of prestige that they believe is superior to that which is common among highly rejective colleges (Orphan, 2018). I also discuss Zerquera’s (2023) groundbreaking framing of prestige and share ideas for how her work and framing might be used to advance nuanced understanding of how RPUs redefine excellence and reconceptualize prestige. I conclude with a discussion of how RPU leaders and higher education scholars might use these frameworks to lead and understand RPUs.

Author

• Cecilia M. Orphan, University of Denver