The Weight of an Anchor (Institution): Institutional Inequality, Status, and Mission in University-Community Partnerships

This dissertation study investigates the current state of institutional inequality in the field of higher education, and how those dynamics relate to the construction of status and mission orientations in various universities and colleges. Through the qualitative examination of community engagement programming at 12 universities in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States, this study investigates the perspectives of four key stakeholder groups involved in community engaged educational programming: University Administrators, Program Directors and Staff, Students, and Community Partner Organization Leaders. This study finds that there is a deep tension in the field of higher education between maintaining institutional status and becoming an “engaged university”. At the highest levels of institutional status, missions and status orientations are tightly aligned towards status maintenance, while lower status universities and colleges are more likely to adopt alternative status markers and are more willing to incorporate engagement across their institutions. These dynamics lead to more positive evaluations of administration, institutional status and mission for students and community partners as institutional status decreases.