Wanted: More young men enrolling in college

SALT LAKE CITY — It's easy to make a quick list of challenges facing universities and colleges in Utah and beyond: Student debt. Campus culture wars. Budget cuts and reallocations. Tuition hikes. Workplace readiness.

But another challenge that has impacted campuses for decades is often buried underneath the stack of higher education headlines and debates.

More and more, males are sidestepping college.

Here are a few facts shared by the recently organized Higher Education Male Achievement Collaborative:

• Men now account for just two out of five college degrees earned in the United States, fewer than the share women received in 1972.
• Less than half of men who enroll complete a four-year degree within the expected time frame.
• Increasing numbers of male students arrive at college with significant mental health needs and associated challenges.
• Men from rural communities have the lowest enrollment rates.

The predominance of women in college head counts is happening in every state — including Utah.

As the Deseret News reported last month, 53% of the students enrolled in the Beehive State's degree-granting institutions were female.

A larger number of females are enrolled at each of the state's eight public degree-granting colleges and universities with one exception — the University of Utah, where males hold the majority by a tiny margin.

Meanwhile, just over half of students enrolled at Brigham Young University — a private institution sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – are female.

Reversing the 'disappearing male' campus trend

Last October, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the American Institute for Boys and Men launched Higher Education Male Achievement Collaborative — a joint initiative of diverse voices committed to addressing declining male achievement rates in higher education.

The institute's founding President Richard Reeves is a prominent advocate for solutions to the male/higher education challenge. His book, "Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It," was recently featured on President Barack Obama's Summer Reading List.

The alarm bells regarding male enrollment declines are tolling louder these days as overall college head counts diminish, Reeves told the Deseret News.

More people are taking notice of fewer males on campus — along with its attendant economic and social consequences.

There are several viable reasons for male enrollment declines, said Reeves. They vary by institution and by states. So it's difficult to generalize.

"But I think it's a sign that the K-12 system is not boy-friendly enough," he said. "What's happening in colleges is largely a reflection of what happens in K-12."

The K-12 system, Reeves continued, is not "geared to boys as it is to girls — and that's why two-thirds of the top 10% of high schoolers, by GPA, are girls."

Mike Kofoed partners with the achievement collaborative as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Tennessee and he keeps his finger on the pulse of college enrollment and education economic trends.

He points to research suggesting that primary school-age boys perform at the same rate as their female classmates on standardized tests — but often receive lower classroom grades. That could be caused by differences between boys and girls in non-cognitive skill development.

Simply put, boys are not always a good fit for the K-12 classroom — and that could influence their educational trajectory and attitudes toward school.

Simultaneously, Kofoed added, the American economy has witnessed wage compression. Paychecks have risen in traditionally lower-income trade jobs, prompting many men to decide that higher education is unnecessary.

But the career longevity and wage growth of such trades often can't match those jobs filled by workers with college degrees.

Both Reeves and Kofoed agree that fewer men in the college classroom also exacts a social-economic toll. While it seems socially acceptable for a man to marry a woman with less formal education, the reverse is not always true.

"It's becoming more and more difficult for women with a college degree to find dating and marriage partners," said Kofoed.

'Not a zero-sum game'

Reeves also suspects that declining male college enrollment numbers is also an identity issue. Many men simply don't feel comfortable on campus.

"I'm increasingly worried that more and more men — especially if they are men from, say, a working-class background — just don't see college as being a place for them," he said.

Kofoed and Reeves believe schools at all levels can do more to make schools a more male-friendly place — including hiring more male K-12 teachers.

"Children can then see (a male teacher) who has gone to college and been successful. They can learn that it's not unmasculine to want to pursue a higher education," said Kofoed.

Efforts to increase male participation in higher education need not come at the expense of females, emphasized Reeves. It's not a zero-sum game.

"We can be passionate about women's rights — and compassionate towards the struggles of boys and men," he said.

Collaborating to address males and higher education

Since launching about three months ago, Higher Education Male Achievement Collaborative has partnered with nearly two dozen inaugural partners — including two- and four-year educational institutions, academic leaders and other mission-aligned non-profits from across the country.

"Over the past few months, we've been speaking with our individual schools, seeing what programs they have in place to support male students," said the achievement collaborative's program manager Melinda Brock.

The group partners are also participating in a shared online learning community and monthly community webinars. The organization's first annual conference is in the works for later this year.

The group is looking to expand its partnerships with organizations interested in better achievement outcomes for males in higher education.

Utah higher education leaders respond

When asked about declines in male enrollment, Salt Lake Community College President Greg Peterson references research indicating that the country's K-12 system "isn't necessarily built in a way that provides the optimal experience for male students."

As a result, many male high school graduates don't see themselves as "college material."

Peterson points to its Salt Lake Technical College as an example of a post-secondary education option that offers students clear and relevant pathways — particularly for male students.

Read the entire story at Deseret.com.

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