College Promise Programs as Symbolic Politics

Since the Tennessee Promise’s 2014 launch, “free college” or “Promise” programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a “last-dollar” award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs’ effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we argue that many such programs are exercises in “symbolic politics,” that is, they perform organizational altruism and meet survival imperatives while minimally reducing real costs. We illustrate this by detailing the creation, implementation, and results of a Promise program at a large community college. Cost concerns and the need to appeal to critical publics led the college to adopt a last-dollar design and numerous eligibility criteria. Consequently, few applicants were funded. However, many applicants believed they had received the scholarship, the college’s enrollment increased, and the program received widespread acclaim. We discuss implications for higher education policy and the applicability of symbolic politics to organizational action.