By Lack of Reciprocity: Positioning Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Organizational Field of Higher Education

This study examines social closure processes in the organizational field of higher education and their implications with respect to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Using institutional comparison-group data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), we analyze how organizational identity claims and non-reciprocation reveal salient between-group boundaries among different types of four-year colleges and universities. Compared to other organizational traits that could potentially give rise to social boundaries in this organizational field, findings indicate that the social divide between HWIs and HBCUs is particularly sharp. Importantly, our analyses show that this divide is the result of HWIs excluding HBCUs through non-reciprocity, and not the result of HBCUs self-segregating. The results thus suggest that social closure is one mechanism through which HWIs protect their racially privileged status. Overall, the pattern of non-reciprocity documented in this study suggests that HWIs continue to interpret HBCUs as lesser institutions of higher education, despite their significant historical and contemporary role in American higher education.