Education is the value proposition that provides individuals the opportunity to become meaningful contributors to society, their community, and their immediate families. It is the calling card of personal achievement and individual intrinsic benefits. Education is about access and opportunity. Institutions continue to navigate strategies of access to achieve diversity on their college campuses, especially racial and/or ethnic diversity. This outcome has become challenging in light of several rulings through the federal courts, "Hopwood v University of Texas," 1996; "Gratz v Bollinger," 2003; and laws passed by state legislatures such as California's Proposition 209, effectively eliminating race conscious affirmative action admissions policies. The net effect of these cases and laws resulted in colleges and universities exploring other admissions strategies to continue to support the presence of diversity on their campuses. This study specifically focused on a private, selective institution of higher education and its efforts to increase the socioeconomic diversity of its undergraduate population. This qualitative study included structured interviews with 19 executive and senior institutional leaders to understand their experiences in the decision-making process resulting in organizational change. The following themes emerging from this study were organizational change, decision-making, institutional culture, and student activism. The findings of this study will inform senior level university administrators of the considerations involved in effective strategic planning. Institutions of higher education have always had an important role to play in increasing the college participation and success of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]