Tuition‐Free College Policies and Workforce Diversity: How Policy Incentives and Environmental Favorability Shape Representation

ABSTRACT While scholars have built considerable evidence on representative bureaucracy as a transformational independent variable, less is known about the organizational and policy conditions that motivate public institutions to invest in workforce diversity. Drawing on resource dependency theory, we argue that tuition‐free college policies (‘Promise Programs’) will alter organizational incentives by expanding financial resources and diversifying clientele. In turn, we argue that colleges will expand workforce diversity and enhance passive representation of diverse clientele. In our staggered difference‐in‐differences analysis, we find that Promise Programs significantly increased the hiring of Hispanic faculty and staff. However, these gains lagged behind the rapid diversification of the student population, limiting progress toward a representative bureaucracy. These effects were driven by public and two‐year colleges. Our results suggest that Promise Programs can promote workforce diversity but may fail to create a representative bureaucracy.