Quick Takes

In the past three years, Maryland's state university system has seen a sharp increase in the gap between the six-year black graduation rates and those of other students. The Baltimore Sun reported that the black rate is 40 percent, while the rate for all students is 65 percent. That 25-point gap is up from a 15-point gap just three years ago. System officials said that they were frustrated by the trend. In part, they said, it was because the system is recruiting more black students who are from low-income families and who may have a more difficult time, financially, staying enrolled.

While it has become standard for presidential searches in higher education to involve search firms, Colorado State University's board is aiming to hire the next chancellor without one. A university statement said: "The CSU board decided not to retain a search firm because it felt the committee had the expertise and CEO insight to accomplish the same outcome without spending $100,000."

Barton College, in North Carolina, has announced that it will give the parents, guardians and grandparents of students the right to take two courses in the college's weekend program for adult students -- without paying tuition. College officials said that the program was inspired by President Obama's call for all Americans to gain at least one year of higher education. About one third of Barton's students are first generation college students, so any participation by their parents would advance Obama's goal. The three-credit courses open to these potential new students normally have a tuition charge of $339 per credit hour. Kelly Thompson, vice president for external relations, said that because the program is new, the college has no idea how widespread participation will be. But she said that the college is willing to hire extra instructors if needed to meet the demand.

States need to take specific steps during the recession to assure access to higher education, says a statement released Tuesday by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The policies endorsed by the center include: admitting all eligible students, using pre-recession admissions criteria; barring practices -- such as moving up application deadlines -- that may discourage the enrollment of disadvantaged students; adopting budgets that do not disproportionately hurt institutions that serve many disadvantaged students; seeking budget plans for states that do not cut higher education more than other units of state government.

Citing financial difficulties, Quinnipiac University, in Connecticut, will eliminate its men’s golf, men’s outdoor track and women’s volleyball teams at the end of the academic year. Jack McDonald, athletic director, said in an internal memo, “A variety of scenarios were explored to continue to provide gender-equitable and competitive opportunities for the greatest number of male and female student-athletes in these fiscally challenging times.” Quinnipiac is a Division I institution and a member of the Northeast Conference, but it does not field a football team.

Female college students may be drinking excessively based on a false assumption. A study published in this month's Psychology of Addictive Behaviors finds that many female students drink on the assumption that male students will find them more attractive. But scholars who polled male and female students found that, in a variety of situations, the women overestimate how much the men want them to drink -- generally by one and one half drinks.