Calling all Men
Where have all the men gone? It appears as if male enrollment at community colleges is on the decline and officials at these institutions are trying to address the problem. According to a May 23, 2007 article written by Scott Jaschik titled, “Looking for Male Students,” that appeared in Inside Higher Ed, “When community college leaders gather these days, one topic that seems to come up all the time is what to do about declining male enrollments. Nationally, men make up 43 percent of college students, and there are plenty of community colleges where that proportion is smaller.”
Jaschik went on to report:
“On Tuesday, the efforts of one such institution — St. Petersburg College — were described to a very engaged audience at the annual meeting of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, in Austin. With male enrollment down to 39.7 percent at the ethnically diverse (half white, half other groups) Florida college, Rod Davis has been moved from a position as academic advisor to coordinator of the Male Outreach Initiative, and he described the process of putting together such a program.
“In part, he said that the college didn’t want to re-invent the wheel, so it’s been looking at what other institutions — in and out of academe — are doing. For example, in talking to those who enlist in the military, Davis said it was clear that the way the military is reaching students is getting involved in middle schools and high schools early, with military recruiters volunteering with sports teams and building relationships early — without an explicit recruiting agenda. Davis said that if the military can succeed at this — even at a time of war — surely colleges can.”
Work before School
It appears as if one of the challenges facing potential male students is that they are unaware of programs that can help them balance their full-time jobs with going to school. Jaschik reported that according to focus groups being run by St. Petersburg College in Flordia, “Many of the students’ employers have tuition reimbursement programs, but the college found that male students in particular didn’t know about them, or how to get access to the money to which they are entitled. So the college has started bringing in human resources officials from major employers to talk about benefits such as tuition reimbursement.”
He went on to quote Davis, “Men know where they want to go, but have no ideas about how to get there.”
Men are from Mars
We’ve all heard the rumors that men don’t communicate their “needs” as often or as well as women do. Apparently, studies are touting men’s lack of communication skills as one of the reasons they are not getting the programs they need to both work and attend school. Jaschik reported:
“A related problem is that male students are less likely to be communicative about what their issues are — unless asked directly. Male students will end up having several meetings with an academic or financial aid counselor before revealing what is really on their mind, he said. The male students appear to be more willing to be open with male counselors, so the college is trying to make sure staffing is balanced on gender.
“St. Petersburg College is also doing a lot of research on retention patterns and trying to share the results with academic counselors. For instance, Davis said that for male students on average, distance education isn’t wise in their first year, as drop-out rates are high.”
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