‘Nobody knows where the line is’ – When cost-cutting universities hire consultants, who’s really making the decisions?

Following high-profile cuts that rpk advised on at West Virginia University, the firm has emerged as a particularly prominent player in the field. It has been hired by dozens of colleges, and its name has come to stir anxiety in the hearts of faculty members. Professors critical of this process see consultants as convenient shields for administrators, who use these firms to bolster their arguments for making unpopular cuts. Others view them as hatchet men, selling a flawed process that twists data to fit preconceived suggestions on which programs — typically in the humanities and, in particular, languages — need to be chopped.