A Critical Discourse Analysis of Higher Education President’s Email Communications in 2020 and 2021

Abstract

Email communications from presidents to faculty, students, and staff communicate institutional priorities; they play an important role in shaping the ways that power, ideology, and influence are constructed and replicated across the institution (Serrano, 2018; McNaughtan & McNaughtan, 2018; Eddy, 2003; 2005; Briscoe, 2022). In this study, I explored presidential email communications sent between June 2020 and November 2021 across 11 public institutions in the United States. Eddy (2005; 2005) argued that university presidents have a responsibility to communicate as sense-makers during crises to help direct the campus conversation and to set the institutional agenda. As such, I sought better understanding of the nature of Higher Education presidential communications to expand knowledge of presidential communication styles and approaches to communicating institutional priorities. Specifically, using a Critical Discourse Analytic approach to data analysis, I sought to understand how the language used in emails were indicative of presidential and institutional priorities and if and how linguistic tool usage were utilized differently according to the topic.