Although I agree with Ellen Cushman that "Universities serve those aspiring to and those already from the middle, upper, and elite classes" I'm not sure that I'd agree that "Teaching in composition and rhetoric empowers those who are, to some extent, already empowered, already privileged--by mere virtue of sitting in the university classroom." The students sitting in my classroom mostly "aspire to" the status they think university is offering them, and even the ones who are pretty clearly already middle class (we don't get much of the upper & elite here) don't seem all that empowered to me. They look like victims, too. It's okay -- it's accurate -- to say that we'd be addressing a more radical problem if we reached far enough outside the university (I'm not seen to buy the ivory tower image) to touch the people who aren't and are never going to be here -- but I'd fail at that. I do what I can do, and what I can do is here, with these people. I don't know about empowering them, but if I can help some of them figure out what power is and what it can do and who's got it, I'll be happy.