Explanations for why more women than men attend and graduate from universities, including this one, are plentiful among students at The University of Memphis:
"Guys are more immature and more likely to get into trouble."
"Poor motivation."
"This generation is not too interested in school."
"Guys get jobs in their dads' businesses."
"Women are smarter."
For Brett Wynne, a senior public relations major, the explanation is easy.
"There are more girls than guys in the world," he said.
Whatever the reason, that fewer men are attending The U of M and other universities is a fact. Today, men represent 44 percent of college undergraduates nationwide, down from 58 percent 30 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Education. At The U of M, men make up 39 percent of the undergraduate population, according to statistics from the Office for Institutional Research.
Part of the problem may be as simple as Wynne's explanation - the U.S. Census Bureau reported 149.1 million women and 144.5 million men in the United States in 2004. Men outnumber women, however, until the 35-39 year old age group.
At Memphis, 12,460 women and 8,005 men were enrolled the fall 2005 semester.
Sabrina A. Brinson, assistant professor in Instruction and Curriculum leadership, said that boys start falling behind girls at an early age.
"Boys run differently than girls," she said, and that can lead to reading and behavioral problems early on.
These problems, possibly exasperated by a lack of male elementary school teachers as role models, only progress as schooling continues, she said.
In high school, most dropouts are male, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
In Shelby County Schools, 31 percent of male high school seniors surveyed in 2005 said they were going to a four-year college, as opposed to 40 percent of females.
Not every senior took the survey. Numbers were not available from Memphis City Schools.
"Men coming out of high school still have job opportunities," said Don Mynatt, a graduate student in sociology, citing technical and vocational fields that are usually male-dominated.
Sharon Horne, an associate professor of counseling psychology, agreed with Mynatt.
Trades, such as plumbing and electrical work, "are good-paying trades traditionally not open to women," she said. "A woman who goes to college typically makes as much as a man with a high school degree."
The earnings gap is well documented - the Census Bureau says nationwide, women earn 77 cents to every dollar their male counterparts make.
Chrisann Schiro-Geist, vice provost for Academic Affairs, offered another explanation, this time historically based.
In the past, the problem has been that there were not enough women in certain areas, namely science, technology, engineering and mathematics, leading universities to form women's peer mentor groups, she said.
Now, she said, gender roles have changed, but there are still majors that are dominantly male or female.
"Why are there no men in nursing?" she said. "Engineering and nursing are probably the two majors that you can get a bachelor's and immediately make money."
Those two majors, however, are gender-specific, she said. Ninety-one percent of nursing students are female. Eighty-two percent of engineering students are male.
"Maybe, yes, there are more women, but they are in areas traditionally not as well-paid," Schiro-Geist said.
In addition to nursing, more women than men major in audiology and speech pathology, education, arts and sciences and communication and fine arts. More men than women major in business and law.
Breaking down the numbers ethnically gives an even starker picture.
Black males make up only 27 percent of the total black students enrolled at The U of M. American Indian males come in second for lowest percentages of total students enrolled at 42 percent, followed by Asian males at 43 percent and Hispanic males at 44 percent.
"It really seems to be very much tied to ethnicity," said Horne, suggesting economic factors as one possible explanation.
Brittanae Odell, a sophomore nursing major who went to Oakhaven High School, suggested otherwise.
"Almost every male I went to high school with ended up at Lane," she said. Lane College is a historically black college in Jackson, Tenn.
Not only are men not enrolling at The U of M as often as women, male full-time undergraduates also have a lower retention rate, at 74.9 percent. The female retention rate is 78.3 percent, a significant difference according to OIR.
The male retention rate is still higher than the overall national average of 74.2 percent for 2005, as reported by ACT's Institutional Research department.
"Overall, we're doing good," Schiro-Geist said. "Just looking at numbers never tells you anything. We have to look at the numbers and say, 'What does that mean for us?'"
Schiro-Geist said one of the goals for the retention committee, which she heads along with Yolanda Harper-Ray, assistant vice provost for Student Affairs, is to identify and meet the needs of the many different groups that attend The University of Memphis.
"What are the needs for each group?" she said. "It hasn't happened yet, but that's what we're going to do."
