The gender ratio at colleges and universities appears to be stabilizing after a decade of expansion in the gender gap with more women attending college than men, according to a Jan. 26 report from the American Council on Education.
However, the implications of lasting gender imbalances on America’s college campuses are still having an effect on where men and women choose to apply to school, according to USA Today.
From the summer of 2008 through the spring of 2009, AU’s student population was comprised of 6,046 students, 62 percent of whom are women.
Women dominate four of the five major undergraduate schools, according to the 2009 Academic Data Reference Book. The School of Public Affairs has a slight female majority with about 100 more women than men. The School of International Service, the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Communication all have nearly twice as many women as men.
The only school that has a slim male majority is the Kogod School of Business.
Although AU’s population has a female majority, it is not the only university with the same unbalanced ratio.
Universities and colleges around the country are experiencing the same phenomenon because women make up the majority of college applicants, according to the ACE.
Kate Peters, a freshman in SIS, said that she does not notice the relative absence of men when she is walking around campus, but in her Spanish class there are only two men in a group of about 25.
Despite the imbalance in class, Peters has not had much trouble finding male friends, she said.
The issue of affirmative action is shifting to include the new minority of men, according to Richard Whitmire, a former editorial writer for USA Today, who wrote a book titled “Why Boys Fail.”
However, it has not yet been established that men are actively held down by the educational system, or if their failure relative to women is due to other factors.
In an interview with USA Today, Whitmire said that boys are struggling to adapt to the new emphasis of verbal skills in primary school, consequently impacting their chances at a college education.
Haven Bradley, a freshman in CAS, said that the K-12 educational system does not cater to boys as much as it does to girls.
“The classroom is a lot of sitting around and being lectured at while boys want to get up and go,” Bradley said.
Another viewpoint suggests that the desire to escape the classroom is not confined by gender, and men need to start living up to the same standards as women.
Julie Burian, a sophomore in SOC, said her Advanced Placement Psychology class in high school was comprised entirely of girls.
“It’s bullshit that men are having an easier time applying to colleges,” Burian said. “Men don’t work as hard as girls do, and girls are natural overachievers. Guys just don’t care as much as girls.”
Next month, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment is slated to release the 2010 Academic Data Reference Book, which provides the statistics of the student population at AU for the summer and fall of 2009 through spring of 2010.
You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.
