Organizational Virtue Signaling, Tier-one Excellence, & Legitimation Liabilities: A Critical Policy Analysis on the Role of Urban HSIs in the Transfer Pipeline

Purpose This instrumental case study of organizational legitimation and socio-legal pressures investigates the (un)intended policy outcomes of Texas House Bill 51—a performance-based funding model.Research Questions Through critical policy analysis, this study asks how emerging research policy contexts exacerbate tensions between excellence and equity and potentially influence baccalaureate access for community college transfer students of color from financially disenfranchised communities?Method The study relies on thematic analysis of commonalities, contradictions, and tensions between semi-structured interviews, 50 policy texts, internal and public-facing institutional documents, and news press releases.Conclusions Findings provide a unique contribution to the field, offering insight into the way public discourse surrounding emerging tier-one excellence influences strategic planning, producing policy winners while positioning community college transfer students as legitimation liabilities.Contributions Drawing from the language of the policy text, public discourse, and institutional artifacts, juxtaposed to the expressed priorities and values of the university enrollment management team, defined here as organizational virtue signaling. As such, this study offers timely insights into the influence of coercive external socio-legal pressures on the process of institutional legitimation in higher education.