The True Cost of RPK

RPK Group is being paid “about $300,000” for their work on the Vancouver campus, according to Interim WSU Vancouver Chancellor Sandra Haynes.

The RPK group is a consulting company that specializes in higher education, hired in July by Interim Chancellor Haynes. The group is currently engaging in two reviews for the campus. 

Haynes said these reviews are “a deep, deep data look at what we’re doing so that when we have to make decisions, it’s not just a gut feeling or qualitative data.”

The intent is to combine the quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (non-numerical) data to help make the best decisions possible for students. The first review is the Academic Portfolio and Resources Review, which Haynes said is looking at questions like “Do we have the right majors that we offer? “Do we schedule classes at the right time so that students have access to them and can complete on time?” 

The second review RPK is conducting is the Administrative Services Review, which Haynes said is focusing on questions such as “How do we make resources better available for students?” “How do we make sure that our administrative teams are working better together?”

According to Haynes, the cost to hire RPK for the two reviews was “about $300,000.” This was funded from WSU Vancouver’s fund balance, or as Haynes calls it, “one-time money,” which was money set aside to pay for things like RPK’s consulting work. Haynes said that WSU Vancouver doesn’t anticipate budget cuts as a result of RPK’s work. 

“I think that that’s a fear, that they’re coming in to make cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts,” Haynes said. “That’s not their job. Their job is to help us be more data-informed. They’re teaching us how to gather and use data to make important decisions. So, at the end of this process, there’s not going to be cuts because RPK came in.”

Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Damien Sinnott, during a Chancellor’s Town Hall in October, presented the data that WSU Tri-Cities received from the RPK group when they hired them two years ago. He said the data from RPK will help WSU Vancouver in being “data-informed, not data-driven.”

RPK group’s consulting is scheduled to be completed this December, when they will give a final report to WSU Vancouver staff. Haynes said during the town hall, “It’s an ongoing effort to make sure that we continue to make good decisions, good data, informed decisions.”