VOA教育报道2023--Colleges, Universities Trying to Increase Number of Male Students

Colleges, Universities Trying to Increase Number of Male Students

Donje Gates is 18 years old and lives in Chicago, Illinois. His family wants him to go to college in the fall. But Gates is thinking about going to a trade school instead. He says he worries about the cost of college and is not sure if it will be valuable to him.

Gates was in a group of high school students visiting Chicago's Malcom X Community College. About 75 percent of the school's students are women. Like many colleges and universities in the United States, Malcom X is struggling to get more male students to enroll¹.

Women now make up about 58 percent of U.S. college undergraduates. That information comes from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The percentage of men in higher education is getting smaller each year.

Now, some universities are making extra efforts to attract and keep male students.

For example, leaders at Malcolm X Community College saw that Black men were dropping out at a higher rate than other student groups. To help more Black men stay in school, leaders started a mentoring³ program. The program connects a teacher or other school employee with two Black male students.

The effort has helped. Forty-three percent of Black male students dropped out between the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022. But 93 percent of the men in the mentoring program stayed in school, said the school's president, David Sanders.

However, Sanders said some men do not want to admit they need academic help.

"There's an expectation for a male," he said. "He's supposed to be strong and not show weakness."

Ideas about men can affect enrollment⁴

College officials say some ideas about men and boys add to the enrollment difficulties.

Berea College is a small private school in the southern U.S. state of Kentucky. It has 18 percent fewer male students now than in 2019. The college is trying to attract more men from nearby areas in the Appalachian Mountains.

Rick Childers is a former student at Berea. He now works for the college and leads the school's Appalachian project. He said many of the male students he meets face the same outdated⁵ ideas about masculinity⁶ that he did. In that old way of thinking, going to college was not something a strong man would do.

Childers said his father would call him "college boy" in a negative way.

Educators say it is difficult to make college appealing to men who have been told that college is not for them.

Educators say another problem is that some officials at colleges and universities do not believe male students need any special help.

Ioakim Boutakidis is a professor of child and adolescent studies at California State University Fullerton. He noted⁷ that some officials think men already have more advantages than women. As a result, those schools may be less likely to offer special support for male students.

Boutakidis said he has tried to get his university to pay attention to male enrollment and academics. But his coworkers, he said, have expressed doubt about the need for more focus on male students.

Overall, men of color are less likely to attend college than white men. Because of this, Boutakidis said he thinks schools should focus on men of color first.

Some colleges across the country have started to do that. California's large community college system has increased support of its African American Male Education Network and Development program, or A2MEND. The program aims to attract and keep Black men.

One way it does this is by giving one-on-one mentoring and providing places for the students to meet. The program hopes this will make Black students feel welcome and build a sense of community.

Amanuel Gebru is vice⁸ president of student support at Moorpark, a California community college. He is also president of the A2MEND board. He said he thinks colleges should hire more Black professors.

Just seven percent of faculty⁹ members at American colleges are Black, according to the National Center for Education Statistics¹⁰. Moorpark College said just two percent of its faculty members are Black. The U.S. population is 13.6 percent Black.

In New Jersey¹¹, Montclair State University has tried several ways to attract male students from communities in that state. This includes providing tutoring, counseling¹², food and other things students need.

But many communities still believe men do not belong in college, said assistant provost Daniel Jean.

"There's an anti-intellectual environment that's gotten worse," he said. "The definition of manhood is often flawed¹³."

Vaughn Smith Jr. is a 23-year-old Montclair State student from Newark, New Jersey. Smith, who is Black, said boys and men in poorer neighborhoods may be focused on things other than making college plans.

He said most of his male high school classmates did go to college. But many of them, he added, have since dropped out.

Words in This Story

enroll -v. to enter a program of study in a school

undergraduate -n. a student in a college or university studying for an associate's or bachelor's degree

attract -v. to cause admiration¹⁴ of something or a desire to get closer to something

mentor² -v. to give advice or guidance to someone over a period of time

masculinity -n. the qualities that are considered to be typical of men

adolescent -adj. referring to people are no longer children but not yet adults, typically teenagers

advantages -n. aspects that make something better or puts someone in a better position

focus -n. attention directed to a specific topic or thing

faculty -n. teachers at colleges and universities

tutoring -n. additional teaching and instruction to help students

flawed -adj. having a mistake or not working correctly

1 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

2 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

3 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

4 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。

5 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

6 masculinity   

n.男子气慨

参考例句：

• He felt it was a threat to his masculinity.他觉得这对他的男子气概是一种威胁。
• Football is a bastion of masculinity in this area.在该地区足球是男子汉的天地。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

9 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

10 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。

11 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

12 counseling   

n.咨询服务

参考例句：

• A multimillionaire media magnate has shocked his employees with his candor by telling them all that he's putting his business affairs on hold to enter an alcoholism-counseling program. 一位身份数百万的媒体大亨，坦诚地告诉他全体员工他将暂时搁置他的事业以便参加戒酒班，令员工大为惊愕。
• She will need medical help and counseling to overcome the tragedy. 她将需要医疗帮助和心理咨询来平复这场悲剧。

13 flawed   

adj. 有裂纹的, 有瑕疵的，有缺陷的

参考例句：

• I would contend that the minister's thinking is flawed on this point. 我倒认为部长的想法在这一点上有漏洞。
• The study was methodologically flawed. 这项研究在方法上有缺陷。

14 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。