Explaining Variation in University Responses to New Legal Mandates in an Uncertain Legal Environment

这项研究考察了在不确定的法律和社会环境下，大学如何寻求遵守新的联邦法律。大学遵守法定任务的程度不仅取决于执法机构、奖惩措施，还取决于来自社会运动和媒体的公众压力、资源的可获得性以及在高等教育领域取得或保持地位的愿望。这项研究提出了一些重要的问题，即为什么一些学校远远超出了遵守法律的范围，而其他学校似乎难以遵守法律。该项目将对1)法律和组织以及2)制度变革进程的研究做出智力贡献。关于大学如何应对新的法律授权的假设源自对法律和组织的研究。为了验证这些假设，这项研究将构建和分析(1)一个原始的量化数据集，该数据集捕捉了382所美国大学在两个时间点上公开可用的政策，以及(2)衡量学校排名和资源的自变量的次要数据集，以及大学在诉讼、行政监督、媒体关注和社会运动激进主义方面面临的外部压力。量化分析将帮助研究人员了解高等教育管理者如何做出决定，决定他们应该如何--以及在多大程度上--修改政策和做法，以符合法律的要求。纵向研究设计试图捕捉大学随着时间的推移对新的法律命令的反应。这项研究还涉及一组六个深入的大学案例研究，这些研究将对行政管理人员的决策过程产生进一步的见解。

This study examines how universities seek to comply with new federal laws in the context of an uncertain legal and social environment. The degree to which universities comply with legal mandates is shaped not only by enforcement agencies, rewards and penalties, but also by public pressure from social movements and the media, the availability of resources, and by a desire to achieve or maintain status in the field of higher education. This research engages important questions about why some schools go well beyond compliance with the law while others seem to struggle to comply. The project will make intellectual contributions to the study of 1) law and organizations and 2) processes of institutional change. Hypotheses for how universities respond to new legal mandates are derived from research on law and organizations. To test these hypotheses, the study will construct and analyze (1) an original quantitative data set capturing the publically available policies of 382 American universities at two points in time, and (2) a secondary data set of independent variables measuring school rank and resources, together with external pressures universities face with regard to litigation, administrative oversight, media attention, and social movement activism. Quantitative analyses will help researchers understand how administrators in higher education make decisions about how -- and to what extent -- they should revise policies and practices to accord with the requirements of laws. The longitudinal research design seeks to capture university responses to new legal mandates over time. The study also involves a set of six in-depth university case studies which will generate further insights into the decision-making processes of administrators.