Maybe colleges shouldn't have accepted these kids in the first place or shouldn't move them along. But I think the author is raising a different alarm -- the number of kids who "do nothing, want nothing, and try nothing" seems to have spiked significantly. Public schools, at least, have a mandate to care about this.

I think the problem of student motivation is much broader than this author's college; I've heard it echoed by so many professors lately, but never as poignantly.