Date of Award

10-23-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

School Name

Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education

Department

Education

Major Advisor

Dr. James G. Archibald

Abstract

Abstract

This multi-institutional, qualitative study examined how university presidents framed language in response to the Supreme Court of the United States’ (SCOTUS) SFFA v. Harvard (2023) decision, which repealed the decades long use of race-conscious affirmative action admissions policies and practices in institutions of higher education. This research also explored mission alignment regarding these presidential statements from a Critical Race Discourse Analysis framework, as mission statements often inform presidential response. This research expands Critical Race Discourse Analysis as a research framework as well as expands the extant literature on presidential response to sociopolitical issues connected to racialized rhetoric (Arellano & Vue, 2019; Cacciatore et al., 2016; Casellas Connors & McCoy, 2022; Cole & Harper, 2017; Fairclough, 2010; Foste et al., 2022; Gee, 2010; McNaughtan et al., 2018).

The research questions that this study broadly examined were:

RQ1. What discourses are present in U.S. university presidents’ responses to the SCOTUS repeal of race-conscious affirmative action?

RQ2. How do these responses align with the institutional mission statement?

Findings from this study highlight four prominent discourses which are as follows: (a) discourse of benefits of diversity (b) discourse of institutional commitment (c) discourse of institutional mission and values, and lastly (d) discourse of work to be done. Additionally, this study’s findings highlight that most institutions were mission aligned in accordance with presidential responses to SFFA v. Harvard (2023). Implications for future university presidents, executive higher education leaders and future research will also be discussed. Lastly presidential responses that went beyond performative rhetoric, toward antiracist action could be an opportunity to realign institutional values and ultimately transform institutions of higher learning as well as expand the current scholarship around presidential racialized discourse.

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