Adverse implications for university teaching concealed in economically driven policies.

Modern universities represent large economic operations fueled by funds that are increasingly derived from student tuition as government subsidies shrink. Student recruitment and retention are now mainly driven by the need for the dollars that students pay into the system. Policy that is responsive to these pressing economic realities, promulgated at all institutional levels, promotes professional behavior that encourages student retention while allowing this to occur through subtle sacrifice of the traditional essence of the university. A multiphase analysis relates the institution's economically driven policies on retention to their classroom implications and to other effects on the behavior of the teaching faculty.