Abstract
Academic drift has been a central concept in the study of higher education for the past half-century, with higher education scholarship locating the phenomenon in fieldwide status competition dynamics stemming from the postwar massification and neoliberalization of higher education. In this paper, I explore the origins and evolution of academic drift at the California State University (CSU) system between 1960 and 2005, finding that its name change from college to university and pursuit of doctoral-level education had endogenous origins grounded not in status competition but rather in a desire to repair an organizational identity breach with field stakeholders. This case suggests that organizational activities that look like they are in the pursuit of prestige may not in fact be grounded in prestige dynamics and that academic drift may be less inevitable and hegemonic than currently portrayed in the literature. Together, these findings advance understanding of a core phenomenon of interest to higher education scholarship.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
1960 Donahoe Act (1960) California State Education Code § 22500–22705. https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb5b69n9fm&brand=oac4&doc.view=entire_text
AB-1279 (1999). Pub. L. No. AB-1279. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=199920000AB1279
Albert, S., & Whetten, D. A. (1985). Organizational identity. Research in Organizational Behavior, 7, 263–296.
Arditti, S. A. (2005). Re: SB 724 (Scott) [Letter to Jack Scott]. https://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/mastplan/edd/sb724_uc_position2.pdf
Baker, B. D., Orr, M. T., & Young, M. D. (2007). Academic drift, institutional production, and professional distribution of graduate degrees in educational leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 279–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X07303320
Besharov, M. L., & Brickson, S. L. (2016). Organizational identity and institutional forces. In M. G. Pratt, M. Schultz, B. E. Ashforth, & D. Ravasi (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Identity. (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199689576.013.2
Bill To (1970) Make State Colleges Universities Passes Assembly. Santa Cruz Sentinel. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19700423&dliv=userclipping&cliparea=1.5%2C728%2C3698%2C1113%2C1745&factor=4&e=------197-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22california+state+colleges%22+%22renamed%22-------1
Boliver, V., Powell, M., & Moreira, T. (2018). Organisational identity as a barrier to widening access in Scottish universities. Social Sciences, 7(9), 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7090151
Brankovic, J. (2018). The status games they play: Unpacking the dynamics of organisational status competition in higher education. Higher Education, 75(4), 695–709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0169-2
California Postsecondary Education Commission. (2000). The production and utilization of education doctorates for administrators in California’s public schools (No. 00–09; p. 304). California Postsecondary Education Comission. http://www.cpec.ca.gov/CompleteReports/2000Reports/00-09.pdf
California State University (n.d.). Undergraduate and graduate degrees granted. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.calstate.edu/data-center/institutional-research-analyses/Pages/reports-and-analytics.aspx
Compromise may settle flap over doctorates at Cal State. (1987). San Bernadino Sun, B5. Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.
Cooke, B., & Kumar, A. (2019). U.S. philanthropy’s shaping of management education in the 20th century: Toward a periodization of history. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 19(1), 21–39. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2017.0277
Crisp, G., Horn, C., Dizinno, G., & Wang, D. (2010). Modeling the racial and ethnic implications of admissions policy changes in the pursuit of tier one status. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 3(2), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019675
Decker, S. (2013). The silence of the archives: Business history, post-colonialism and archival ethnography. Management & Organizational History, 8(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449359.2012.761491
Dicker, R., Garcia, M., Kelly, A., & Mulrooney, H. (2019). What does ‘quality’ in higher education mean? Perceptions of staff, students and employers. Studies in Higher Education, 44(8), 1425–1441. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1445987
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101
Douglass, J. A. (2000). The California idea and American higher education: 1850 to the 1960 master plan. Stanford University Press.
Dumay, X., & Draelants, H. (2017). Organizational identity of universities: A review of the literature from 1972 to 2014. Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, 3, 99–118.
Dumke, G. S. (1963). Higher education in California. California Historical Society Quarterly, 42(2), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.2307/25155542
Ernst, J., & Schleiter, A. (2019). Organizational identity struggles and reconstruction during organizational change: Narratives as symbolic, emotional and practical glue. Organization Studies, 42, 0170840619854484. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619854484
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363
Fumasoli, T., Barbato, G., & Turri, M. (2020). The determinants of university strategic positioning: A reappraisal of the organisation. Higher Education, 80(2), 305–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00481-6
Gardner, D. P. (1997). David P. Gardner: A life in higher education: Fifteenth president of the University of California at Berkeley 1983–1992 (A. Lage, Interviewer) [Interview]. Oral History Center, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://ohc-search.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/MASTER_917
George, A. L., & Bennett, A. (2005). Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. MIT Press.
Gerth, D. R. (2010). The people’s university: A history of the California State University. Berkeley Public Policy Press.
Geschwind, L., & Broström, A. (2021). To be or not to be a technical university: Organisational categories as reference points in higher education. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00757-w
Gioia, D. A., Patvardhan, S. D., Hamilton, A. L., & Corley, K. G. (2013). Organizational identity formation and change. The Academy of Management Annals, 7(1), 123–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2013.762225
Glynn, M. A. (2000). When cymbals become symbols: Conflict over organizational identity within a symphony orchestra. Organization Science, 11(3), 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.3.285.12496
Gonzales, L. D. (2012). Responding to mission creep: Faculty members as cosmopolitan agents. Higher Education, 64(3), 337–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-011-9497-9
Harwood, J. (2010). Understanding academic drift: On the institutional dynamics of higher technical and professional education. Minerva, 48(4), 413–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-010-9156-9
Henderson, B. B. (2009). Mission creep and teaching at the master’s university. College Teaching, 57(4), 185–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567550903218497
Holmberg, D., & Hallonsten, O. (2015). Policy reform and academic drift: Research mission and institutional legitimacy in the development of the Swedish higher education system 1977–2012. European Journal of Higher Education, 5(2), 181–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2014.997263
Jacobs, C. D., Kreutzer, K., & Vaara, E. (2021). Political dynamics in organizational identity breach and reconstruction: Findings from the crisis in UNICEF Germany. Academy of Management Journal, 64(3), 948–980. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2018.0821
Jaquette, O. (2013). Why do colleges become universities? Mission drift and the enrollment economy. Research in Higher Education, 54(5), 514–543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-013-9283-x
Joint Committee for Review of The Master Plan for Higher Education. (1989). California Faces...California’s Future: Education for Citizenship In a Multicultural Democracy (p. 138). California Legislature. http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb2r29n7hc&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text
Joint Committee on Higher Education. (1969). The challenge of achievement: A report on public and private higher education in California to the Joint Committee on Higher EDucation of the California Legislature. https://ia601307.us.archive.org/17/items/ERIC_ED027879/ERIC_ED027879.pdf
Kammerlander, N., König, A., & Richards, M. (2018). Why do incumbents respond heterogeneously to disruptive innovations? The interplay of domain identity and role identity. Journal of Management Studies, 55(7), 1122–1165. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12345
Kerr, C. (2001). Letter to Alpert [Letter to Dede Alpert]. https://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/mastplan/edd/kerralpert.pdf
Kipping, M., Wadhwani, R. D., & Bucheli, M. (2013). Analyzing and interpreting historical sources: A basic methodology. In M. Bucheli & R. D. Wadhwani (Eds.), Organizations in Time: History, theory, methods (pp. 305–329). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646890.003.0013
Knutsen, K. L. (1993). Beyond business as usual: A framework and options for improving quality and containing costs in California higher education (CRB-OP-93–001) (p. 84). Cailfornia Research Bureau.
Kraatz, M. S., & Block, E. S. (2008). Organizational implications of institutional pluralism. The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (1st ed., Vol. 840, pp. 243–275)
Krücken, G. (2021). Multiple competitions in higher education: A conceptual approach. Innovation, 23(2), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2019.1684652
La Belle, T. J. (2004). Credential inflation and the professional doctorate in California higher education. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1s98k07z
Legislative Analyst’s Office. (1981). Analysis of the 1981–82 Budget Bill: Postsecondary education (pp. 1231–1461). Legislative Analyst’s Office. https://lao.ca.gov/analysis/1981/11_higher_ed_1981.pdf
Loss, C. P. (2012). Between citizens and the state: The politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century. Princeton University Press.
Mathews, J. (2009). Arnold’s debt to Eunice. The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/08/11/arnolds-debt-to-eunice
Mcclure, K. R. (2018). Institutions of opportunity: Using presidents’ narratives to re-tell the story of public regional universities. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education, 3, 117–134. https://doi.org/10.28945/4167
Merriam, S. B. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Morphew, C. C. (2002). “A rose by any other name”: Which colleges became universities. The Review of Higher Education, 25(2), 207–223. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2002.0005
Naidoo, R. (2018). The competition fetish in higher education: Shamans, mind snares and consequences. European Educational Research Journal, 17(5), 605–620. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904118784839
O’Meara, K., & Bloomgarden, A. (2011). The pursuit of prestige: The experience of institutional striving from a faculty perspective. Journal of the Professoriate, 4(1), 35.
Ordorika, I., & Lloyd, M. (2015). The state and contest in higher education in the globalized era: Critical perspectives. Critical approaches to the study of higher education: A practical introduction (Vol. 53, pp. 130–152). https://doi.org/10.5860/CHOICE.192473
Orphan, C. M. (2018). Public purpose under pressure: Examining the effects of neoliberal public policy on the missions of regional comprehensive universities. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 22(2), 101.
Orphan, C. M. (2020). Not all regional public universities strive for prestige: Examining and strengthening mission-centeredness within a vital sector. New Directions for Higher Education, 2020(190), 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20364
Orphan, C. M., & Broom, S. (2021). Life at the “people’s universities”: Organizational identification and commitment among regional comprehensive university faculty members in the USA. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00629-9
Pratt, M. G., & Kraatz, M. S. (2009). E pluribus unum: Multiple identities and the organizational self. In L. M. Roberts & J. E. Dutton (Eds.), Exploring positive identities and organizations: Building a theoretical and research foundation (pp. 385–411). Routledge.
Pusser, B. (2008). The state, the market and the institutional estate: Revisiting contemporary authority relations in higher education. In J. C. Smart (Ed.), higher education (Vol. 23, pp. 105–139). Springer, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6959-8_4
Pusser, B. (2018). The state and the civil society in the scholarship of higher education. In B. Cantwell, H. Coates, & R. King (Eds.), Handbook on the Politics of Higher Education (pp. 11–29). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786435026.00008
Ran, B., & Golden, T. J. (2011). Who are we?: The social construction of organizational identity through sense-exchanging. Administration & Society, 43(4), 417–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399711412727
Ravasi, D., & Schultz, M. (2006). Responding to organizational identity threats: Exploring the role of organizational culture. Academy of Management Journal, 49(3), 433–458. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.21794663
Reed, C. B. (2001). [Letter to Richard C Atkinson] (Box 58–1). California State University Archives, Inventory of the Donald R. Gerth Papers, 1946–2000.
Reed, C. B. (2006). Transcript of interview with Donald R. Gerth (D. R. Gerth, Interviewer; Box 68–34) [Interview]. California State University Archives, Inventory of the Donald R. Gerth Papers, 1946–2000.
Reynolds, W. A. (2004). Transcript of interview with Donald R. Gerth (D. R. Gerth, Interviewer; Box 69–05) [Interview]. California State University Archives, Inventory of the Donald R. Gerth Papers, 1946–2000.
Roark, A. C. (1985). Doctorate plan finds foes within CSU system. Los Angeles Times, a3.
Santa Cruz Sentinel. (1985). Cal State to offer doctoral degrees. Santa Cruz Sentinel, A-17. California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.
Savage, D. G. (1985). Cal State Plan could ignite Turf War: Might offer doctorates in competition with UC, other schools. Los Angeles times, 3, 33.
SB-724 (2005). Pub. L. No. 724, California Education Code Chapter 2. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200520060SB724
Selingo, J. (2001). California’s 2 university systems go toe-to-toe over a doctorate. The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://www.chronicle.com/article/Californias-2-University/17762
Sherriffs, A. C. (1984). “Education advisor to Ronald Reagan and State University Administrator, 1969–1982”, an oral history conducted in 1982 by Sarah Lee Sharp. In The Governor’s Office and Public Information, And Planning, 1967–1974. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; Bancroft Library.
Simoes, E. (2006). CSU Doctorate in Master Plan. The Daily Titan, 1, 3. California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.
Slaughter, S., Slaughter, S. A., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state, and higher education. JHU Press.
Stensaker, B. (2015). Organizational identity as a concept for understanding university dynamics. Higher Education, 69(1), 103–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9763-8
The California State University. (2001). Meeting California’s need for the education doctorate. https://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/mastplan/edd/2108EddReport.pdf
Tight, M. (2015). Theory development and application in higher education research: The case of academic drift. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(1), 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2015.974143
Tool, M. R. (1966). The California state colleges under the Master Plan: A report to the Academic Senate of the California State Colleges. Academic Senate of the California State University; California State University Archives, California State University Reports Collection. http://digitalcollections.archives.csudh.edu/digital/collection/p16855coll5/id/9272
Trombley, W. (1967a). Dumke calls for doctoral degrees at state colleges. Los Angeles Times, g1.
Trombley, W. (1967b). State Colleges Ph.D. Proposal Draws Criticism: Head of Higher Education Council Says Master Plan For State Bans Program. Los Angeles Times, 3.
Trombley, W. (1972). 13 Colleges due to be renamed universities: New status will stem from criteria OKd by state panel. Los Angeles Times, c1.
Voss, Z. G., Cable, D. M., & Voss, G. B. (2006). Organizational identity and firm performance: What happens when leaders disagree about “who we are?” Organization Science, 17(6), 741–755. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1060.0218
Wadhwani, R. D., & Bucheli, M. (2013). The future of the past in management and organization studies. In M. Bucheli & R. D. Wadhwani (Eds.), Organizations in time: History, theory, methods (pp. 2–30). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646890.003.0001
Wadhwani, R. D., Suddaby, R., Mordhorst, M., & Popp, A. (2018). History as organizing: Uses of the past in organization studies. Organization Studies, 39(12), 1663–1683. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618814867
Warshaw, J. B., McNaughtan, J., & DeMonbrun, M. (2019). Between two fields: US public master’s institutions — striving for prestige or equity? Higher Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-019-00137-1
Warshaw, J. B., DeMonbrun, M., & McNaughtan, J. (2020). A field of striving or equity? Regional public universities and college access. New Directions for Higher Education, 2020(190), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20365
Whetten, D. A. (2006). Albert and Whetten revisited: Strengthening the concept of organizational identity. Journal of Management Inquiry, 15(3), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492606291200
Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). SAGE.
Zerquera, D. D. (2021). Complicating the study of prestige seeking among broad access institutions. In G. Crisp, K. R. McClure, & C. M. Orphan (Eds.), Unlocking Opportunity through Broadly Accessible Institutions. Routledge.
Zusman, A. (1986). Legislature and university conflict: The case of California. The Review of Higher Education, 9(4), 397–418. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.1986.0017
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Simon Marginson, Monica Higgins, Daniel Wadhwani, Julie Reuben, the participants of the Gardner Seminar at UC Berkeley, the participants of the Centre for Global Higher Education webinar series, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and feedback.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, A. The origins and evolution of academic drift at the California State University, 1960–2005. High Educ 85, 265–281 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00832-w
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00832-w