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Two quick things about these cuts happening in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vermont. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/04/boulder-arts-and-sciences-dean-wants-build-back-faculty-post-pandemic-one-non-tenure
First, I take this part of the article to mean they use Responsibility Center Management at UVM. What this means is that each college must cover all of its own costs with all of its own revenues. If this is the case, it gives the college incentive to cut programs not making $.
Second, many colleges are obsessed with revenue per student credit hour. It's the metric by which they measure if there are resources to, for example, hire more faculty in a given program. Depending on the funding formula, it can influence the types of programs that are launched.
Under RCM, what programs earn in student credit hours (referred to SCHs where I'm at) becomes extra important. Effectively, each college becomes an independent business entity that must figure out how to at least break even. It's a model that will certainly hurt the humanities.
Unrelated, I also think RCM is a model that would disadvantage colleges of education, which through no fault of their own can have enrollment challenges. They'd likely accelerate what they're already doing: investing in graduate programs.
By the way, I apparently included the wrong link in my original tweet. Too many cuts happening, I guess. Here's the link to the Vermont story. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/07/u-vermont-faculty-members-pledge-fight-planned-cuts-liberal-arts
And I confirmed that Vermont uses a type of RCM called Incentive Based Budgeting. It's an approached that has gained in popularity in higher ed. And has some possible benefits, certainly. https://www.uvm.edu/finance/ibb
I wrote a bit about consolidated administrative services and RCM here. https://www.aaup.org/article/next-generation-higher-education-management-fads#.X84zKxNKjJ8
Since I wrote this, there's been some good empirical work done on RCM. See, for example, @ozanjaquette @DKramerII and @cursbr's recent JHE paper. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221546.2018.1434276
