Analyzing the Role of Professional Values and Personal Beliefs in the Implementation of State and Institutional Policies That Affect Undocumented Students

• In Event: 46.037 - Toward Justice: Role of Policy in Shaping Contexts, Praxis, and Higher Education Access for Undocumented Students

Abstract

This segment of the symposium will examine the extent to which 46 community college administrators’ professional values (i.e., core standards that guide student and academic affairs professionals) and personal beliefs (i.e., individuals’ principles that guide their opinions) affect how they implement state and institutional policies regarding undocumented students in four states (California, Connecticut, Georgia, and Wisconsin). This investigation offers a unique contribution by focusing on the role of postsecondary education institutional actors (e.g., presidents, vice presidents, admission staff, registrar officials, and outreach staff) in shaping and implementing higher education policies that provide or prohibit access for undocumented students.

For this presentation, we posit that a majority of administrators, despite their personal beliefs about immigration, sought to fulfill their roles as policy implementers because they chose to follow supervisor expectations, support administrative leadership, and contribute toward the institutional mission. Administrators who chose to act based on their personal beliefs about immigration often relied on personal experiences shaped by contact with undocumented immigrants, events during childhood, and the belief that education was a moral imperative. As such, administrators who held anti-immigrant beliefs still implemented policies that supported in-state resident tuition for undocumented students in accessible states and administrators who held immigrant-friendly beliefs still implemented policies that denied in-state resident tuition for undocumented students. Administrators who were ambivalent about immigration implemented any policy dictated by the state.

It is possible, however, that the few administrators who defied their prescribed roles within the organization also defied their role as policy implementers, especially when their professional values conflicted with their personal beliefs. These administrators may have applied a problem-solving method often used in student affairs practice that examines ethical dilemmas; anticipates consequences, one’s intuitions and feelings; and offers viable alternatives (Magolda & Baxter Magolda, 2011, p. 462). Although this method is beneficial in making a sound decision, it does not “adequately address the professional or personal risks assumed by individuals who decide to publicize tensions between personal beliefs and organizational norms, particularly if these conflicts are rooted in issues of identity…” (Carducci, 2011, p. 466). In these circumstances, administrators may decide to leave the institution, maintain the status quo or serve as “tempered radicals” who “seek congruence between their personal beliefs and identities and their organizational environments” (Carducci, 2011, p. 467). The consequences of their decisions inevitably affect the institutional and personal support that undocumented students may receive.

Authors

• Michelle M. Espino, University of Maryland - College Park

• H. Kenny Nienhusser, University of Hartford