Higher Education Quick Takes

Many low-income students who could benefit from higher education don't apply to college because they don't know they could get financial assistance or they are intimidated by the process, says a new report, "Promoting Economic Mobility by Increasing Postsecondary Education," released Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The report argues that simplifying the aid application process is crucial if more disadvantaged students are ever to have a shot at college.

Jack McDonald, athletics director at Quinnipiac University, on Tuesday admitted in court that some men's coaches rigged rosters to try to make the institution look better on gender equity than it really was, The Connecticut Post reported. The testimony came in a suit in which women's team members charge the university with gender bias violations, and the specific allegation was made earlier in the trial, by a women's coach. McDonald admitted that rosters were rigged as the coach said they were -- with men's coaches dropping some men from their squads a few days before statistics were reported, and then adding the men back a few days after the reports were filed. The reports thus didn't reflect the full range of athletic opportunities available to male students, and the gap between those opportunities available for male and female students. While McDonald admitted that the manipulation took place, he said that the university never tolerated the practice and has addressed it. "Nobody told coaches that, 'This is how you get around it guys,' " the Post quoted him as testifying.

With anti-abortion groups continuing to criticize the University of Notre Dame's decision to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies, there was one commencement address the critics might like. The commencement speaker at Ave Maria University, which prides itself on strict adherence to Roman Catholic teachings, devoted time to denouncing Obama and Notre Dame. The Naples Daily News reported that the speaker at Ave Maria -- Thomas Hilgers, an obstetrician from Nebraska -- called Obama "viciously pro-abortion" and compared having him to the the invitation made to the speaker Hilgers heard at his own graduation, whom he described as a priest who turned out to be "a denier of the Resurrection, pro-homosexuality and pro-contraception." The anti-Obama talk on graduation day prompted one person to write to The Sun-Sentinel to ask: "Uh, what happened to 'love thy neighbor.' "

The District of Columbia agency that handles financial aid requests has just sent detailed information about 2,400 aid applicants to 1,250 of those applicants, The Washington Post reported. The office sent an e-mail to 1,250 applicants and accidentally attached a spreadsheet with 2,400 applicants' names, e-mail and home addresses, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and dates of birth. The agency has since asked all of those who received the spreadsheet to destroy it. Further, it sent an apology to the students whose information was shared, and is offering one-year subscriptions to a credit-monitoring service so that they can try to prevent identity theft.