Changing Names, Merging Colleges: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding the History of Higher Education Adaptation

• In Event: 66.057 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 66.057-3 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Historical Inquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) Strengthen what is currently known about historical events that influenced the consolidation of colleges and/or the alteration of institutional titles. (2) Clarify the extent to which historical events (particularly financial recessions, panics, and crises) influenced higher education mergers and title changes. In order to accomplish these goals, this study employs a convergent parallel mixed-methods design that examines events including, but not limited to, the US Agricultural Economic Collapse (1837), the “Long Depression” (1870s-90s), the “Great Depression” (1930s), the Energy Crisis (1960s-70s), and the twenty-first century “Great Recession.” In order to conceptually guide this research, a “resource dependent” framework, described by Pfeffer and Salancik (2003), aids in the development of relevant conclusions.

Authors

• R. Eric Platt, University of Southern Mississippi

• Steven Randall Chesnut, University of Southern Mississippi

• Melandie McGee, University of Southern Mississippi

• Xiaonan Song, University of Southern Mississippi