FY teacher here just to chime in with those saying that many of them simply aren’t up to the challenge. Which is not to say they never will be. I get some students who are not up to par academically, but far more often it’s simply maturity issues: they don’t read they syllabus, don’t stay on top of the schedule, don’t do the reading. They are not self-motivated, and they don’t know how to deal with it when they find out that nobody in college is going to provide motivation or nag them or whatever.
In fact, I have counseled a number of students to drop out; go join the circus for a couple of years, figure out who you are and what you want, and then come back to school.
Cool. I don’t remember if I knew any Richardson students per se, although I definitely knew ones who were in that low-temperature group of ~3 or 4 professors. I was a theorist, so I wasn’t down there in the basement. At any rate, I imagine that your father was there before my time (being that I was there '86-'92).