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[QUOTE="OttoMets, post: 710186, member: 716"]
SU made the decision about 20 years ago to eliminate grammar from the curriculum in the writing program; the thinking was that if these kids couldn't learn the fundamentals of writing in the first 13 years of their education, their college professors wouldn't be able to get through to them, anyway. And this is a societal problem - many incoming college students are poor writers. (Many consider this an indefensible pedagogical move by SU.)
 
This has hurt Newhouse; similar shifts in instruction at other universities have been similarly unhelpful. The stripping down of copy desks at all newspapers (but especially at small and midsized dailies, like the Sub) has compounded the problem; we've got a lot of professional writers who can't write.
 
Newhouse and SC and Northwestern and Missouri (and everyone else) just aren't bringing in the same students as they did 20 or 30 years ago. No one is. Admitted students have been raised on Sportscenter and increasingly-poor journalism (where there is often no distinction between journalists and columnists, as so many here point out about the new hires at the Sub). By and large, they're less well-read than their predecessors and have not received the same quality of English education.
 
What little I've read from the new guys has not been impressive, but the blame doesn't end with them or with Newhouse. Society has declined and these writers haven't put in the work necessary to overcome that. And the support from their employer stinks.
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