Last fall, the Board of Visitors heard a presentation about Strategic Visioning & Positioning, co-presented by a group called Huron Consulting. It was focused on defining and demonstrating “preeminence,” a word that appears in this document¹ 37 times and seems now to be a hypnotic buzzword for the Brafferton. One does not come away with a clear understanding.

Deep breath, everybody. To achieve “preeminence” in Huron’s definition, William & Mary must reach the following magic numbers:

• Have 15.6 applicants per undergraduate seat (today, it’s 10.0)
• Lower the acceptance rate to 22% or lower (today, 37%)
• Convince 42% of those accepted to enroll (current yield is 27%)
• Spend $397,000 on research per full-time faculty equivalent (today, W&M spends $100,000)
• Retain 97% of freshmen (in 2024, this was 95%)
• Graduate 86% or more within four years (U.S. News has us at 84%)
• Have 94% of students find employment or graduate school within six months of graduation (the Class of 2024 hit 92% here)
• Raise the median starting salary for graduates to $75,000 per year (up from 2024’s $73,490)

So basically, they think we should do just a little better in every category, but increase applications by 50% and increase research spending nearly fourfold² (at an institution with no medical or engineering school). All we must do is reach these magic numbers, and preeminent glory will come to us at long last. Helpful, right?

But Huron Consulting is not known in higher education for setting aspirational goals and empowering institutions to achieve them. Their slash-and-burn reputation, by many accounts, precedes them.

At New York City’s New School, hiring Huron in 2020 led to a “reimagining” of the university that meant layoffs and furloughs. Something similar was recommended at New Hampshire that same year. American. George Washington. UConn. The University of Wisconsin. West Virginia. W&M hired them first in 2024 to implement expensive software called Workday and they’re still with us.

Of course, here at the Gale, we argue that W&M has been the victim of “reimagining” for some time already. It’s still moving forward. Consultants usually tell leadership what they wanted to hear in the first place, and serve as an absent, already-paid scapegoat if things don’t go well.

A future William & Mary that cares most about gaming application rates, quadrupling research spending, and post-graduate salary is not going to look much like the small and smart, great and public institution that so many of us love dearly. Outcomes are important, demand is important, but our unique campus experience is paramount. It’s our greatest advantage, and it will not show up in Huron’s magic numbers.

Don’t let Strategic Planning, Huron Consulting or the Board of Visitors diminish William & Mary into a shadow of our greatness. Stopping this grotesque transformation is up to us.

1. Our favorite part is Huron’s suggestion W&M should “develop a strategic national enrollment strategy” in response to what they see as subpar application rates. All of the finest strategies are strategic, after all.
   ↩︎
2. One of Huron’s bright ideas is to subsidize research costs with undergraduate tuition dollars (see slide 12 of their presentation). We wonder if that was part of the tuition increase discussion last week. ↩︎