@EdWorkingPaper{ai26-1396,
title = "Strategic Decision-Making in Higher Education: State Legislators and Affordability Policy for Public HBCUs",
author = "Arsene Frederic Jr.",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "1396",
year = "2026",
month = "February",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1396",
abstract = {This study uses a multiple-case qualitative research design to explores how power dynamics creates challenges and opportunities for SLBCs and their constituent members working to broaden college affordability and access for undergraduate low-income Black students attending public HBCUs. Guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and the Black Utility Heuristic (BUH), the study analyzed interview data and state legislative documents to examine how the process of policy change and coalition structure and collaboration informed the policy agenda and the role of power dynamics. The analysis identified SLBCs and their constituent members advocacy for college affordability at public HBCUs is simultaneously belief-driven and deeply constrained by institutional power. Findings revealed that tension between the moral commitment and political constraint. This further demonstrate how that SLBCs and their constituent members transformed limited procedural power into influence through collective strategy and adaptation. This study contributes to higher education research by demonstrating that decisions about college affordability, particularly for public HBCUs, are shaped by power dynamics that occur before formal votes take place. By examining these behind-the-scenes processes, the study helps explain why certain policy proposals advance while others stall, even when there is broad support for affordability goals.},
}