National trends have shown that the number of college-going males is dwindling, making gender diversity an issue on many college campuses, according to USA Today.
Nearly nine million women attended college in 2001, compared to 6.96 million men the same year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics' Web site.
Some liberal arts colleges use advertising techniques to appeal to prospective males, but academic concessions are not made based on gender at AU, according to Sharon Alston, director of admissions.
"We are actually gender blind in all of our processes at this particular time," she said.
Approximately 36 percent of first-year students at AU are male, according to the College Board's Web site. The admissions office achieves more diversity through the admission of international students than males, but specifically the office looks for students with strong commitments to community service and political action, Alston said.
When AU begins its initial outreach to prospective students, letters from current students are sent to high school students, she said. If a male high school student is receiving a letter, it might come from a male talking about athletic events and intramural sports in addition to academics, she said.
Photographs used in publications are also directed toward males, Alston said. Admissions might use pictures of athletic events or pictures with groups of male students in their publications, she said.
However, methods to increase the male population on campus, such as admitting more qualified males from the waiting list, could be used in the future, Alston said
"It's not necessarily beyond reason at this point," she said.
Approximately 37 percent of first-year students at Albright College, a liberal arts school in Reading, Penn., are males, according to the College Board. Chris Boehm, director of admissions at Albright, said the school also does not factor gender into its admissions process.
"We don't do anything specific to target more males," he said.
The national trend is there are more females than males in the college age group, and more females are going to college and choosing liberal arts schools, Boehm said.
"It's tough because women are on the ball," he said.
Some schools have more trouble getting women to enroll than men despite the current trend.
Thirty percent of students this fall are female at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., said Mark McFee, assistant director of undergraduate admissions. More men typically attend RIT because of its engineering and computing programs, but more and more women have started to enroll, he said.
"Most liberal arts colleges have the opposite problem," he said.
The engineering program reaches out to women by hosting new student programs and providing mentors for new female students, McFee sad. Males can also attend new student programs, but the majority of participants are women, he said.
RIT offers 24 sports (12 male and 12 female), and a variety of activities and classes that appeal to women such as yoga and Pilates, McFee said.
AU students of both sexes said they do not think the gap between the number of males and females on campus detracts from campus life.
"I don't think it's apparent," said Steven Piels, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Piels said he has noticed that many of his friends are girls, but he does not think it is a problem.
"I think girls are more sensitive to it than guys," he said.
Jason Oliver, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said he thinks his classes are relatively equal between men and women.
"It's not like I'm outnumbered completely," he said.
Brittany Walsh, a sophomore in CAS, said she does notice the difference in her classes.
"But it doesn't affect my education," she said.
