Given problems with our operating budgets, and without adequate capital funding, we were unable to grow rapidly enough to meet growing demand-at least, not at the price point people were willing to pay. As is true for any undercapitalized industry, we attracted competitors. We lost our monopoly. Enter the for-profits and the virtual universities, which promise better, faster, and more convenient education, with quality at least the equal of the traditional universities. Well, maybe this isn't a bad thing.
Competition is good.
Monopolies should be broken. Perhaps any institution that traces its ancestry back a thousand years is overdue for drastic modification. Not so fast. Let's consider the consequences to society if we fail to overcome these threats. I hope to rise above that perception by pointing out that I am near enough the end of my own career so as likely to be able to retire before the world in which I have lived collapses.