Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3882-6684

Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Dissertation (Campus Access)

Degree Type

PhD

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Division of Resource Economics & Management

Committee Chair

Michael Dougherty

Committee Member

Aaron Giorgi

Committee Member

Kasi Jackson

Committee Member

Nathan Sorber

Abstract

The role of the provost has expanded beyond academic administration to include leading institutions through increasingly complex social, political, and policy challenges. Despite this evolution, little research has examined how provosts enact leadership through institutional communication during periods of disruption. This qualitative study examines how provosts at U.S. public research universities responded to three adaptive challenges between 2020 and 2024: the murder of George Floyd, the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, and state legislation restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Guided by Adaptive Leadership Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis, the study analyzed provost-authored and co-authored institutional statements from sixteen public research universities.

The findings demonstrate that provost communication functions as a form of adaptive academic leadership through which leaders construct institutional meaning, cultivate institutional ownership, preserve institutional legitimacy, and recalibrate discourse while maintaining institutional purpose. These findings suggest that adaptive leadership within higher education is enacted through communication before it is enacted through organizational action.

This study introduces the Adaptive Academic Leadership–Discourse Framework (AALDF), an original framework that conceptualizes communication as a primary mechanism of adaptive leadership in higher education. The framework is empirically refined through the study's findings and offers a new lens for understanding executive leadership during periods of institutional disruption.

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