Danger and Opportunity: Institutional Identity Crises and Transformation

ABSTRACT Using the theoretical lenses of Erik Erikson, Burton Clark, and Sonia Nieto, the author highlights the case of Colgate University-a private liberal arts university in central New York State-to consider larger issues of institutional identity by investigating points of crises bringing to the surface opposing forces, which struggle, on one hand, to maintain and permanently entrench the status quo, and on the other hand, to transform an institution to a new, qualitatively distinct developmental position. At the core of this investigation is Colgate University's questioning of its identity in terms of a prevailing “masculine” culture and its climate of heterosexism. This examination of Colgate University in microcosmic perspective exemplifies the clash of opposing forces surfacing in institutions of higher education across the United States.