Intentionally inflating enrollment at the expense of admissions standards isn't new by any means, but it's getting ridiculous. My brother in law is a consultant that works (usually) with sub 10k enrollment, private universities on aligning their initiatives/priorities with current and future realities of enrollment and resource acquisition. Some of his stories are absolutely wild, but the common thread is that the old guy who has always done things one way and will never adopt anything new is literally every guy in ed admin. They've pushed back so hard, for so long, that compromising academics in the pursuit of tuition is the only option remaining, and the inevitable outcome for most schools in this category.
Frankly, it's sad and makes me pretty angry, but the reality is that major universities will close entirely, or be stripped back to unrecognizable, exclusively online diploma machines built more on software than anything else. The "open the flood gates" approach is a short term measure, often used for short term gains that end up re-funding "the way we've always done it". Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Really curious what options my kids will have in 10 years.