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Staking a Claim: The Decoupling of Liberal Arts Mission Statements from Baccalaureate Degrees Awarded in Higher Education
Author(s) -
Delucchi Michael
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.2000.tb00903.x
Subject(s) - liberal arts education , decoupling (probability) , logit , endowment , field (mathematics) , sociology , descriptive statistics , the arts , higher education , political science , public administration , law , economics , econometrics , statistics , engineering , mathematics , control engineering , pure mathematics
This study uses data from synopses of academic mission statements at 303 U.S. colleges to examine the relationship between liberal arts claims and major field of baccalaureate degrees. Hypotheses are developed from an institutionalist perspective that focus, first, on the extent to which academic mission statements are decoupled (inconsistent) from major field of baccalaureate degrees awarded at “liberal arts” colleges and, second, on the relationship between several organizational characteristics of colleges and the likelihood of decoupling. Descriptive statistics reveal that 70 percent of colleges making liberal arts claims award degrees primarily in professional disciplines. Logit analysis is used to test institutionalist hypotheses concerning the effects of denominational affiliation, selectivity, residentiality, and endowment on the probability of decoupling. Results support the institutionalist model.