The dirty secret in higher education is that we all have to compete for the same pool of students … and to stay in business, schools may well be letting some of their own academic policies slide. Add to this that the pool of available students is decreasing due to lower birth rates, and is possibly less academically prepared (depending on your views of the current state of public K-12 education). One of the few areas of population growth is among groups that are traditionally underserved educationally, compounding the issue of lack of preparation. One reason I am not in favor of free college is because I see the slippery slope schools are on already as they try to retain and graduate students … I do believe academic standards can suffer in such a scenario … and I feel that free college will lead to even more pressure to make sure everyone “succeeds” (IMHO, this leads to the sort of dumbing down I feel many K-12 districts have fallen victim to).