Missing Men on Campus
by Tanu Henry
www.africana.com
August 29, 2002
Back to school at Howard University in Washington, DC, the campus comes alive with crowds of young, excited students. Fraternities and sororities are strutting their stuff, folks are moving into dorms, the sounds of the marching band practicing rises into the summer air as the campus all around
bustles with activity -- proof that the fall semester has officially
begun.
But behind this idyllic, A-Different-World-style picture lies an
upsetting reality: women continue to outnumber men -- not just on this campus but at colleges across America -- at growing ratios. This June, a record-breaking high of 57 % of new college graduates were women.
The statistics get worse in black America, where studies show that black women earn college degrees at a rate almost two times that of men. At historically black colleges and universities, some schools report margins even steeper. At Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, for example, the student body is a whopping 71 % female. And at Morgan State's graduation in
Baltimore last year, two-thirds of the graduates and nearly the same amount of honor students were female. Pick almost any HBCU, walk on the yard and the scenario is similar: hundreds of sharp, ambitious black women studying, organizing, representing their sororities or just hanging out. The black men might as well be an endangered species.
The situation is disturbing on a number of levels. Beyond the obvious concern about future employment opportunities for black men who do not have college degrees, some voice concerns about the social impact on the African
American community at large --
particularly when it comes to dating, marriage and the formation of families.
"Men leave these environments where they are outnumbered by 10 to 1 feeling as if they are entitled to four or more women at one time, and women leave feeling that they have to man-share," says Frank Matthews, publisher of Black Issues in Higher Education.
In addition, recent months have seen a proliferation of articles on
the sharp increase of marriage between black women and white men. The
Atlanta Journal Constitution, describing the phenomenon as "a quiet revolution," quotes black women decrying the lack of college-educated black men to date,
let alone marry.
"Black colleges," Matthews continues, "have a responsibility to
actively recruit black males and work to retain them."
Everyone agrees it's a problem. But the causes are harder to parse. The popular explanation during the '80s and '90s was that black men were more likely to succumb to drugs, gangs and prison. But new statistics point to other social factors. A study conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles found that women generally study harder then men, have higher
career and personal goals and spend more time preparing for their future.
The same study found that male high school students are likely to
spend their time watching television, playing video games, partying and exercising than studying or planning for their futures.
David Williams, an 11th grade reading teacher at Homestead Senior High School near Miami, remembers first witnessing the trend during his undergraduate years at Wilberforce University in Ohio. There were "definitely more women on campus," he says, and those female students typically outperformed the men there. Sadly, says Williams, he sees the same pattern among the teenagers in his classroom.
"I think males in general -- not just black males -- are more
pressured by their peers to perform below standard and seek negative attention than their female counterparts," he says. "Women, on the other hand, I notice, are better prepared by their families to leave the nest, get out there on their
own and become independent."
So, is it just a case of boys being boys? Or are there circumstances particular to the African American experience that may explain the disparity. According to Carmen Cannon, Director of Admissions at Howard, historically black men have not had much of an incentive to pursue college
degrees -- even when they had the opportunity. Male children, she points out, were expected to provide economic support to their families, often forcing them to work full-time while still in high school, or dropping out of school to work. And then, men have benefited from gender inequity in the workforce --"historically, females have required more education to get jobs
that are equal in pay to those of their male peers."
Black women have gone to college for a variety of reasons, some
different than those of black men -- in the past, for instance, many enrolled to find a husband (ask your mother or grandmother about women seeking the elusive "M.R.S" degree). As women have increasingly entered the workforce, black
women have joined their white sisters in seeking higher education at a faster-growing pace than men.
Black women ought to be lauded for these achievements, not held responsible for the skewed ratios. 
Still, the numbers are alarming to many. How to solve such an
entrenched problem? Isaac J. Black, a former New York social worker and author of a college guide for African American college students, says he has seen in his interactions with young black males that "the brainiac gets no props. (HE'S SO ON POINT! -- ST) Our boys are being bombarded with negative images, have little support, few mentors and are, sadly, too often left unattended by their fathers."
Eric Ward, Associate Director of Admissions at Lincoln University in
Pennsylvania -- where the ratio of women to men is more than 3 to 1, says the low enrollment of black males constantly frustrates him.
"You definitely see it when you go out to recruit. Women show more interest and more women apply than men do," he said. "Many of our young men have unrealistic expectations. They all want to go into sports and entertainment. But then again, how do you convince a kid with several unemployed, college-educated relatives to go to college?"
Ward says his frustration led to him founding, along with his son,
the Nu Juice Foundation, a non-profit venture based in Philadelphia. His organization finds mentors for African American boys in middle school and tries to steer them towards college.
In inner cities and suburbs and even in affluent black communities
(where underachievement is just as prevalent and the numbers of men going to college are just as dismal) organizations are sprouting up to help prepare boys for college.
Some small victories have emerged. Black Issues in Higher Education's Matthews reserves high praise for two HBCUs --Benedict College in South Carolina and Edward Waters College in Florida -- that have actively sought and enrolled black men, leveling the gender ratio to almost 1 to 1 ratios.
Maybe soon back to school will become an equal-opportunity event in the black community.
First published: August 29, 2002
Interesting but saddening -- your take?
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