University president allegedly says struggling freshmen are bunnies that should be drowned

[eppur_se_muova]

3. ... and he's probably right.

All too many students head off to college with no clear idea -- or very wrong ideas -- about why they're going there. Some manage to figure out it wasn't a good decision for them and drop out. Others have to be pushed out, and can't take the hint unless it's applied with a clue-by-four. Most, of course, manage to get at least something out of it, and graduate.

I taught at one school whose policies seemed to encourage students to stick around as long as possible before flunking out. Remedial classes were not identified as remedial, which encouraged less capable/prepared students to take the "intro" course before taking the "real" course (which would have been the intro course anywhere else) and delayed the realization that they were not going to cut it in their chosen major for another year. But they paid another year of tuition to learn that lesson ... THEN dropped out.