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Appalachian works to engage male students |
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Tuesday, 30 January 2007 |
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Editor’s Note: This is the first article of a three-part series on the higher education gender divide.
by LILLIAN HOGAN
News Editor
Nationally, more women than men are enrolling in college, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The U.S. Education Department’s most recent statistics report that women make up 58 percent of undergraduates in the country.
At Appalachian State University, gender issues include female dominated retention rates, graduation rates and leadership roles.
The entering freshman classes over the past five years at Appalachian
have had almost a fifty-fifty male-to-female ratio, Paul N. Hiatt,
director of admissions, said.
However, graduation and retention rate data from the entering freshman
classes of 2000 and 2001, compiled by Heather H. Langdon, assistant
director for Institutional Research and Planning (IRAP), reported
significant differences between male and female students.
The four-year graduation rate through August 2006 for female students was 64 percent. For male students, it was 52 percent.
“Our men are our at-risk students,” Langdon said.
The most recent gender-studied cumulative grade point averages showed
Appalachian men with a mean GPA of 2.71 and Appalachian women with a
mean GPA of 3.06 for spring 2006 undergraduates, Dr. Tina M. Hogan,
senior research associate for IRAP, said.
The Student Achievement Team, formerly known as the Retention
Management Team, looks at why Appalachian has a harder time retaining,
graduating and engaging its male students, Hogan said.
The team uses research data from IRAP to brainstorm ways to communicate
retention and graduation rate issues to the campus, Dr. David P. Haney,
associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and team chairperson,
said.
“One of the ideas on the table is a course on male issues,” Haney said.
“We’re used to women’s studies. We need to start looking at a course
dealing with what it means to be a male in contemporary society.”
Haney clarified the issue, saying Appalachian does not want a 100
percent retention rate because students could transfer to the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example.
However, he said the question of why students leave and in what specific subgroups are pressing issues at Appalachian.
“Graduation from freshman to sophomore year indicates success,” he said.
While Cindy A. Wallace, vice chancellor for student development, agrees
that Appalachian men’s retention and graduation rates are “the most
critical issue,” she said there are other unbalanced gender trends at
Appalachian.
“We have definitely found that more women engage in leadership positions,” Wallace said.
For example, there are consistently less male candidates for the Plemmons Leadership Scholarship, she said.
The problem with the lack of male leadership is an “engagement issue,” Wallace said.
Haney agreed Appalachian “males tend to be less engaged on campus as
whole, and students engaged in campus community life are better
students.”
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