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Abstract
After the reassertion of rural political power during the 2016 presidential election, many colleges and universities throughout the U.S. have expanded their focus on supporting access for rural students. Meanwhile, literature on institutional stratification within higher education suggests that access to the most beneficial postsecondary opportunities has become increasingly limited. Land-grant universities, with their unique public service missions, are particularly interested in addressing the needs of under-served rural communities. However, research on the experiences of rural students in college is limited, and no existing studies explore the development of college access programs for this demographic. This comparative case study explores the development of rural access initiatives at two predominately-white land-grant universities in the American South: the Engage Program at Southern University and the Compass Program at Upland State University (note that pseudonyms are used for program names, universities, and research participants). Findings for the study were drawn from 29 participant interviews with 32 unique stakeholders (university staff, students, parents, and high school partners) as well as document analysis and site observations. Through the primary lens of policy design theory (Schneider & Ingram, 1997), findings show that college access programs are important locations of political risk and opportunity at the postsecondary institutional level. Societal contexts beyond the universities and policy-making rationales of program administrators operate as framing dynamics to reproduce or disrupt narratives about rural students. Findings confirm and extend existing research on inequitable postsecondary pathways for rural students and suggest that social connectivity is a key support element for rural student success in college. Findings also suggest that policy-making rationales constitute an important “logic of practice” (Bourdieu, 1990) for university administrators. This study further extends previous literature on rural education by offering new perspectives on the topic of college access, postsecondary degree attainment for rural students, and the importance of policy-making rationales for higher education administrators.