Higher Education Policy Influencers: The Impact of National, State, and Third-Sector Agendas on Postsecondary Education

Session Type: Working Group Roundtable

Abstract

This self-designed paper session explores the influence of extramural organizations on higher education as a whole. Specifically, we consider how federal policymakers, state legislatures, and non-governmental organizations make demands on the postsecondary sector and in what ways they impact college access, the politicization of higher education, and ongoing negotiation of the purpose and goals of higher education. From an historical perspective, each level of influence - national, state, foundations, and associations - has had and continues to have a profound impact as a demonstration of higher education’s place in the democratic experiment.

Sub Unit

• Division F - History and Historiography

Cosponsor

• Division J - Postsecondary Education

Chair

• Timothy R. Cain, University of Georgia

Papers

• Policy windows, political bursts, and legislation in practice: Significant reauthorizations of the Higher Education Act - Allison Palmadessa, Greensboro College; Erica Eckert, Kent State University

• Populism and partisanship in the recent history of state higher education reform - David R. Johnson, Georgia State University

• Third-sector Organizations and the Ideological Origins of Higher Education Reform - Ethan W. Ris, University of Nevada - Reno

• Choosing Quality: A Queer History of Voluntary Accreditation in the United States Since 1984 - Laura Elizabeth Smithers, University of Nevada, Reno