“What We’re Allowed to Say or Do”: Constrained Responsibility and the Accountability Gap in Student Affairs

This qualitative study examines how higher education and student affairs professionals navigate ethical conflict under coercive compliance, where institutions treat equity-informed care as a liability amid political and legal threats. Interviews with 21 practitioners show how institutional structures narrowed ethical agency and created an accountability gap between authorities controlling decisions and practitioners managing their effects. Findings introduce constrained responsibility and ethical scope of practice to distinguish professional obligations from institutional accountability. Implications address ethics education, professional guidance, and harm-reduction research.