A study released last week said the gap between the richest and poorest students earning a bachelor's degree by age 24 has doubled in the last 40 years.
It also revealed the percentage of students from all income levels enrolling in college has increased during those same four decades. But while 99 percent of students from the highest-income families graduate by age 24, just 21 percent of the lowest-income families graduate by that age.
If it can be assumed that any student who enrolls in college has the grades to be approved for enrollment, the money (or loans) with which to pay for higher education and the desire to succeed, why aren't more graduating?
Laura Perna, a University of Pennsylvania professor and executive director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy, one of the two organizations that published the study, had a variety of answers, none of which put any burden on the students in question.
And that's exactly the problem.
Forty years ago, 18-year-old college students were adults. They could vote, they could drink and, until just a couple of years before, they could be drafted into military service and die for their country.
Sure, many moms and dads footed the bill for college, but many fewer than today didn't. The students worked one, two, three jobs and studied when and where they could.
Minority parents, especially, but not exclusively, did everything they could to make sure their child became -- often -- the first in the family to obtain a college degree.
Once enrolled, students who struggled 40 years ago had a few resources to call on but nothing like today, where colleges offer support to groups divided by race, gender, military service, sexual identity and many other areas.
Today, just at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Safe Zone Program fosters a supportive environment for "gay or lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex or aesexual" members of the campus community, a Women's Center helps create "a community of diverse and empowered students," and a raft of counselors, double the number from a couple of years ago, are available to listen if you have a bad breakup, a rough home life or are thinking about changing your major.
Or, the Black Student Alliance, Hispanic Outreach Leadership Association, International Student Organization and Saudi Students Association help students feel more welcome across cultural lines, and multicultural students can acquire mentors to help them engage in on-campus and off-campus activities.
Elsewhere, UTC students can find one therapy group for women survivors of abuse or trauma, another for "developing your understanding and acceptance of yourself and others through exploring patterns in your relationships" and a Gentlemen's Institution that helps first- or second-year males, among other things, "identify their values and apply those to decision-making."
That's just one local, 12,000-student school. Imagine the assistance available at even larger universities.
All of those programs, though, come with a cost of space, staff and materials, a cost which has been passed along to students in the form of tuition and fees, tuition and fees which can price students from lower-income families out of college.
If it sounds like a vicious circle, it is.
Perna blames the widening gap on lack of access to information needed to enter college and graduate (available in all college handbooks), college readiness (apparently, it's no longer up to the student) and the availability of higher education that meets people's needs, particularly for students who might have children, limited access to transportation and full-time jobs.
As to the last of the three, UTC, just to name one school, offers child-care preferences to students, faculty and staff in its Children Center, is served by CARTA buses and, just as it did 40 years ago, accommodates students with full-time jobs.
Further, President Obama has expanded the available of Pell grants (money to low-income students based on need) and has proposed free tuition to qualified students in two-year colleges. Still, the gap widens.
At some point, higher education, with all the programs it offers to make students feel more comfortable and with all the scholarship and grant money available to pay for it, has to be the responsibility of the student. After all, their grades, their careers, their success are on the line.
College is not for everybody, but those who want it should know there is hard work involved. Forty years ago, when the gap between the richest and poorest students earning bachelor's degree was narrower, students knew that. Parents knew it. Perhaps that concept needs to be relearned.