WHERE have all the men gone? In the last few years, educators have observed that male enrollment at universities has decreased dramatically. Their reports have prompted concern that men in general are being turned away from higher education.
A new study, released last week by the American Council on Education's Center for Policy Analysis, suggests that the problem is a bit different from what education officials previously thought. The dearth of male students doesn't reflect a broad, cross-cultural disinterest in college by American men in general. Rather, it appears to be a product of decreased enrollment in certain demographic groups of men - particularly blacks and men from lower-income households.
This study is encouraging because it suggests the problem is localized and therefore more manageable. It should encourage educators to target groups with low numbers of males in order to reverse the trend of declining enrollment.
Decreased male enrollment needs to be addressed because it threatens the balance in higher education that officials have fought for over several decades. The gender split is almost exactly the opposite of what it was 30 years ago. A 55 percent male majority in 1970 reversed to a 55 percent predominance of females by 1997. Just as a dearth of women was a problem then, a lack of men is a problem now.
Trends like this gradual decline in male enrollment tend to be self-perpetuating. They reinforce themselves generation after generation, gradually driving a group out of higher education. An educational system that only serves half the population isn't desirable, whether that half is men or women. Educational opportunities and expectations shouldn't be tied to gender.
This study shows that students from households earning less than $30,000 per year are 56 percent female and that close to 60 percent of black college students are female. But the most noticeable gender gap is in the intersection of these two groups: 68 percent of black students from lower-income households are females - more than a 2:1 ratio of women to men.
These statistics point out specific problems that haven't previously been identified. That should encourage educators; the whole point of doing this kind of research is to identify problems that can be addressed, not merely to point out trends that are interesting.
Social science research only completes the first step of the process - it identifies trends and locates problems. Further efforts must determine the causes of those problems before policymakers and educators can actively work to fix the problems. The Center for Policy Analysis's study accomplishes the first step by pinpointing the problem.
If deficiencies in the numbers of male students are localized in specific demographic subgroups, the decrease presents a problem that educators can do more about. They can take an active role in addressing these specific areas of the population rather than trying to tackle all of American society and its values and preferences at once.
College recruiters and counselors can target black students from low-income households in order to convince them to attend college instead of seeking employment. Universities can use this information to assess their financial aid systems and determine if low-income male students are being driven by economic necessity to get a job immediately after high school instead of attending college. Educators and administrators can focus on black students, and particularly lower-income blacks, to determine what's driving men away from college.
Some educators disagree that these specific demographic groups are the only problem. They suggest that rather, these are merely the worst parts of a crisis in male enrollment that is occurring across all groups of American society. Blacks and low-income students aren't the only groups with a predominance of females.
But even if they are right, this study is still helpful. By identifying the most severe problem spots, it provides a starting point, from which other efforts can springboard. Rather than trying to address all males, officials have a more localized place to begin. From these initial efforts, they can learn more about the problem and then move to address other demographic groups. By teaching educational officials about the causes behind declining male enrollment, it will help them check decreases in other groups before they become as pronounced.
Further research is needed to determine precisely what has created this gender gap. But the identification of specific areas of concern provides a guide to that process. With it, educators will hopefully be able to reverse the decline in male enrollment and keep men in universities for good.
(Bryan Maxwell is a Cavalier Daily associate editor.)
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