The history of higher education in the U.S. encompasses a vast proliferation and remarkable evolution of individual colleges and universities as well as state systems of higher education. Research on higher education institutions, however, has come to focus predominantly on two institution types: large public universities and small private colleges. This despite the general acknowledgement of the value of institutional diversity, in the U.S. higher education system overall and in public state systems more narrowly. Among the understudied institution types within state systems particularly are public liberal arts colleges. Institutions belonging to this small niche of the higher education landscape share public missions of access, affordability, social mobility, and more with their public system members while also striving to deliver a liberal arts-focused education in a setting more reflective of the small private college sector with small enrollments and highly residential campuses. This study follows a multicase study design to examine more closely the organizational identities of three such institutions. UNC Asheville, the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma, and Sonoma State University are all members of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Guided by a framework from organizational identity theory, this study seeks to discover those internal identity attributes that are most central to each case university’s identity, as well as the external stakeholders or interorganizational networks that exert significant influence on those identities. In the process, this study also demonstrates organizational identity theory’s useful as a structure to guide institutions’ self-reflection. Such reflection yields greater understanding of public liberal arts colleges for university leaders, system administrators, and researchers. It further enables stronger understanding of institutional and system-level decision-making and policy process as state systems consider mission differentiation within a diverse state higher education system.
