Education Commons^™

The Pursuit Of Prestige: The Experience Of Institutional Striving From A Faculty Perspective, Kerryann O'Meara, Alan Bloomgarden

KerryAnn O'Meara

Each year many colleges compete to increase their national rankings within the academic hierarchy. As institutions make decisions and take actions with external rankings in mind, their pursuit of external prestige inevitably influences institutional members and stakeholders. The faculty experience of this pursuit of prestige, or institutional “striving,” is largely unknown. Through data from 29 interviews at one self-identified striving liberal arts college, this article examines faculty experience of institutional striving with attention to how faculty perceive the origins of striving, and its influence on institutional identity and direction, their own work-lives and reward systems.