Too Much or Nothing at All: Racialized Administrative Burdens and Higher Education Policy Communication in Texas

ABSTRACT

Several states, including Texas, have implemented an “excess semester credit hours (ESCH)” policy. State ESCH policies assess a fee to students at public institutions when they exceed a set number of lifetime cumulative credit hours (e.g. students with more than the 120 credit hours needed for a bachelor’s degree). In this article, we investigate a case study of Texas public institutions’ communication of state ESCH policies. We analyze 119 documents collected from November 2019 to April 2020 to conduct a deductive content analysis of the websites using the theory of racialized administrative burdens. We did find that institutions frequently attended by students of color, such as two-year institutions and HBCUs, were the least likely to have information about the ESCH policy.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Izzah Zaheer for her contribution to data collection. The authors would also like to thank Christopher Bennett, Elizabeth Bell, Richard Blissett, Denisa Gándara, and Laura Perna for their helpful comments. The authors bear sole responsibility for the content of this article. This material is based upon work supported by the SMU Texas-Mexico Center and a grant from the American Educational Research Association which receives funds for its “AERA Grants Program” from the National Science Foundation under NSF award NSF-DRL #1749275. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SMU Texas-Mexico Center, AERA, or NSF.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ In order to identify institutions that serve undergraduate students, we used the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) variable ft_ftug. This variable measures whether full-time first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students are enrolled (and is the primary measure used by the federal government to identify institutions educating undergraduate students). We removed all institutions that answered no to this question for the 2018–2019 academic year. That includes the Texas A&M University—Central Texas, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center—El Paso, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Texas Medical Branch, University of North Texas Health Science Center, University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

² There are five institutions that IPEDS labels as four-year institutions though they are community colleges: South Texas College, Tyler Junior College, Brazosport College, Austin Community College District, and Midland College. This misclassification is likely due to the number of bachelor’s degrees earned at these institutions. We analyze these institutions as if they are two-year institutions, but do explore how these institutions' communication aligns with four-year institutions.

³ Texas has no tribal colleges or universities.

⁴ Institutional characteristics included in Table 3 come from the 2019–2020 academic year of IPEDS (since we collected website data during that academic year).

⁵ For an example of how typically well-resourced and predominantly white institutions are deemed the standard in public higher education systems, see Hamilton and Nielsen (2021).

⁶ As an example, it could be that community colleges only contact certain students about the ESCH policy due to a belief that the vast majority of students will not be impacted by the policy. In this instance, we would potentially see less information on the institutions’ websites. Though, we stress that any student who transfers to a Texas public institution to earn a bachelor’s degree would be subject to this policy and community colleges regularly focus on how to prepare for transferring.

⁷ We acknowledge that this would likely require an increase in capacity at either the institution or the THECB that would likely require additional funding.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the American Educational Research Association [NSF-DRL #1749275]; NSF [NSF-DRL #1749275]; Southern Methodist University Texas-Mexico Center [N/A].

Notes on contributors

Dominique J. Baker

Dominique J. Baker is an associate professor of Education Policy in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development and a faculty affiliate of the Data Science Institute at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on the way that education policy affects and shapes the access and success of minoritized students in higher education. She primarily investigates student financial aid, affirmative action and admissions policies, and policies that influence the ability to create an inclusive and equitable campus climate. Dr Baker earned her Ph.D. from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and her M.Ed. and B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Laila McCloud

Laila McCloud is an assistant professor of higher Education in the Educational Leadership and Counseling department at Grand Valley State University. Her research uses critical theories and methods to broadly explore the professional and academic socialization of students within US higher education. Dr McCloud earned her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. She earned her M.Ed. and B.A. from DePaul University.