Higher Education Consultants Report

This report aims to educate and empower local leaders to fight back against hiring consulting firms and the cuts and changes they often recommend. The report introduces some of the common players in higher education consulting, including Gray Decision Intelligence, Huron Consulting Group, rpk GROUP, and EAB, and their approaches and common recommendations. We include some of their known clients so that union leaders can reach out to other locals that have encountered a consulting firm. We also include financial information on individual contracts, where available, to show how much money is wasted. The report also outlines the critiques of each of these firms and how to identify whether they are on your campus. Lastly, this report will present practical steps union and nonunion educators can take to push back against the hiring of a consulting firm and against the recommendations they may impose, using bargaining to protect staff and students, and enlisting student and community allies.