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The article mentions the Flynn effect but I don't understand their point.

If there's a 3 point per decade increase then the average college student today would be smarter than in 1939.

Very likely correct (depending on raw score variance). Due to renormalization, the average IQ of the population stays at 100, even though the average raw score on IQ tests is much higher now than it was then. Allowing more people into college is guaranteed to decrease average IQ score of college students because the overall population's average IQ is still 100, but comparisons of average IQ scores of college students across different years is invalid.

Not necessarily. The college student population might vary over time in ways that the general population does not.

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