expanded access to higher ed was always a dangerous proposition for the capitalist class...democratizatized access, no matter the limitations, offers potential empowerment which is a threat to the established order...was it merely coincidence that the initial surge of working-class entry into universities after WW2 was accompanied by a purge of left (and liberal) instructors, or that academics educated during the Vietnam anti-war era were denied tenure in the 1970s, or that a 'surplus' education force is being told to lower its expectations and pursue vocational training...so-called 'non-traditional' students, the last to gain access, are targets of retrenchment from educational opportunity in an attack analogous to the practice of 'last hired-first fired in the workplace...such students are being held responsible for declining academic standards...Michael Hoover