Resetting the narrative: Strategic messaging around tuition reductions at U.S. private not-for-profit colleges

Abstract

This study analyzes how private not-for-profit baccalaureate-granting colleges frame significant sticker price reductions, or “tuition resets,” to external audiences. Drawing on framing, institutional, and stakeholder theories, we use a content analysis approach to examine how 59 institutions frame tuition resets in institutional press releases and local media coverage. We find that strategic messaging often centers on transparency in postsecondary pricing, responses to broader economic pressure and student debt, alignment with institutional mission, competitiveness among regional peers, and bundling the reset with other institutional initiatives. In addition, the analysis reveals notable differences between institutional and media portrayals. Press releases emphasized affordability, access, and mission alignment, but conspicuously omitted financial strain or declining enrollment, which local news coverage highlighted in certain instances. We conclude that the framing of tuition resets seeks to influence how stakeholders interpret higher education affordability reforms, navigate economic uncertainty, and reinforce institutional mission.