State: A new college trend for black freshmen?: "Unable to afford state universities, students from low-income families - many of them African-American - are being courted by community colleges that have forged ties with groups that offer minority scholarships.

Many, like Riley, are being won over. That's one theory being discussed by educators who are at a loss to explain why the number of black university freshmen dropped by 2 percent this year. The decline was especially pronounced at the University of South Florida, where the drop was almost 15 percent.

The role of Florida's 28 community colleges in the decline was reinforced Friday by Education Commissioner John Winn and community college chancellor David Armstrong, who announced a 19.9 percent increase in black enrollment in the community college system in the past five years.

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