As Rumsfeld said, “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had”. It seems like the faculty struggle to make it work, while the institution “fills seats” often regardless of qualifications. Advising does not seem great to me, as I see students advised to fulfill their science requirement with my class despite having, for example, 320 SAT math scores.
As for the Tech program, I think they are counting on us to weed out the weakest students. They want their program to improve credibility in the community (which sees Engineers from the local research U as “real” and our majors as “weak”. The texts we use for Statics, Dynamics, Thermodynamics, etc. are the same as those used in Engineering programs around the country, so the students are supposed to get a solid grounding. As such, they probably think I don’t enforce ENOUGH rigor, since I have students passing who are likely to sink in the next semester.
I have heard faculty in several departments complain about the quality of the incoming classes, but the college is on a tear to expand and admits students to fill the seats.