USATODAY.com - Higher education, Delta style: "That the campus sits atop a former cotton field says a lot. Valley's mandate when it opened 54 years ago was to educate the predominantly black population in the Mississippi Delta, where catfish farming has replaced cotton as a key industry.

Today, it's trying to increase its non-black enrollment. But in a state with a history of racial segregation, income, race and education remain inextricably linked.

So, while some of the nation's most elite universities grapple with how to entice more low-income students to their campuses, places like Valley can hardly escape the poverty that envelops them.

Some 95% of students here are eligible for Pell Grants, a federal program for low-income students. More than half, including Phillips, qualify for the maximum amount. Many, if not most, are the first in their families to go to college. Some are heads of households; some, single parents. Each of those factors, studies show, increases the chances a student will get derailed."