The States and Higher Education Legislative Views on the Governance of Public Colleges and Universities: Enhancing the Public Interest

Abstract

The mass media's role in shaping public policy remains the focus of intensive research among political science and communication scholars. Yet virtually nothing is known about media coverage of state higher education policy making. Using mass communication theory, this study analyzes press coverage of an appropriations conflict between two nationally prominent universities. Its purpose was to determine whether newspapers give preferential treatment to their local universities, ultimately producing bias in their coverage of higher education.

State political culture and the affordability of higher education : a multivariate analysis of the impact of state higher education systems on the cost of attending college.

“…Many studies recognized the need for statewide coordination of higher education (Banta, Rudolph, Van, & Fisher, 1996;Marcus, 1997;Epper, 1997;Martinez, 1999;Welsh, 2002). Several researchers explained that the coordination worked best when: (a) it was evaluated for contemporary needs (Epper, 1997); (b) policy allowed for flexibility at campus-level implementation (Mills, 1998); and (c) communication existed among state-level and campuslevel leadership (Colbeck, 2002).…”

Rethinking Academic Entrepreneurship: University Governance and the Emergence of the Academic Enterprise

“…The bureaucratic logic, in which many public universities operate, involves significantly different levels of organizational autonomy. Relative to the academy logic, the state plays a larger role in the operations of universities existing in the bureaucratic logic: beyond providing base funding, the state specifies goals and objectives for the university to achieve (see, e.g., Martinez ). In addition, the bureaucratic logic results in specialized organizational structures that differentiate faculty and professionalized management.…”

Creating Value in the Entrepreneurial University: Marketization and Merchandising Strategies

“…This is in line with the "market logic" (Clark 1986;Leslie and Johnson 1974) developed in contrast with the "academy" one and the "bureaucratic" one. The "academy" logic underlines the autonomy and self-governance of universities, with the State only taking a "funder" role; the "bureaucratic" logic, instead, encourages the State to play a larger role, by specifying higher education institutions' goals and objectives (Martinez 1999).…”