MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The University of Minnesota has hired an outside consulting firm to analyze the university’s administrative costs and report to state lawmakers.

Regents on Friday discussed the hiring of Sibson Consulting to examine the school’s structure. The analysis will cost $48,000 and will be given to legislators March 15.

Sibson Consulting will review the university’s administrative layers and number of employees who directly report to each supervisor.

Minnesota lawmakers asked for the study after The Wall Street Journal in December made the university a case study of administrative bloat at American universities. The paper reported the university’s administration grew almost twice as fast as its student body in the last decade.

University President Eric Kaler has called the claims of administrative bloat “remarkably deceptive” and unfair.

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