Priming Support for Access and AccessUVA: Lessons Learned from Public Opinion Research on Affirmative Action

• In Event: 051 - Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Paper Session. Meeting the Challenges of Inequality through Sociological Practice

Abstract

Abstract
The purpose of this research is to explore the possibility of increasing support for access to higher education through issue frames, and priming individual support for need-based financial aid programs. To elucidate the potential, institutional use of issue frames for higher education policy, I employ the case example of AccessUVA: the University of Virginia’s principal need-based financial aid program, put into place to attract highly qualified, low-income students to the institution. First, this paper provides a bird’s eye, political sociological account of AccessUVA, including the program’s launch, publicity, and present scrutiny for cuts to guaranteed grant-funding for low-income students. Second, this research pursues a better understanding of how institutions of higher education may generate increased support for access programs through a specific, issue frame: defining need-based financial aid programs as tools to redress structural inequalities in the U.S. At the same time, institutions like the University of Virginia should avoid prompting individual recall of self-interest in publicly presenting need-based, financial aid programs like AccessUVA to stakeholders. In the end, this paper concludes with a discussion of how this specific issue frame may enable the institution to increase political and financial support for AccessUVA – should the University of Virginia continue to focus financial aid programs on need-based funds to support low-income students, over the use of discretionary funds for increasing institutional competitiveness.

Author

• Jennifer Poole, University of Virginia