When Karen Balding was inaugurated as the president of Rivendale University in 2014, the University was experiencing a financial crisis.For several years enrolments had been declining and costs had been increasing.The resulting deficits had been made up by using the principal of quasi-endowment funds.(For true endowment funds, only the income could be used for operating purposes as specified by the donor.Quasi-endowment funds are accumulated operating surpluses and there are no legal prohibitions on the use of the principal.)The quasi-endowment funds were nearly exhausted.

Balding immediately instituted measures to turn the financial situation around.She raised tuition fees, froze faculty and staff hiring, and curtailed operating costs.Although she had come from another university and was viewed with some scepticism by the Rivendale faculty, Balding was a persuasive person, and the faculty and trustees generally agreed with her actions.In the year ended June 30, 2016, there was a small operating surplus.

In 2016, Balding was approached by Angie Nicol, a Rivendale alumnus and partner of a local management consulting firm, who volunteered to examine the situation and make recommendations for permanent measures to maintain the University's financial health.Balding accepted this offer.

Nicol worked about half time at Rivendale for several months and had many conversations with Balding, other administrative officers, faculty and trustees.She learned that the University's mission had been approved in early 2011 and was expressed as "Producing and communicating knowledge for the twenty-first century". Early in 2017 she submitted her report.It recommended increased recruiting and fund-raising activities; however, its most important and controversial recommendation was that the University be reorganised into a set of profit centres.