How college gender imbalances impact the social scene…

Back to a theme of interest on this blog, why young men aren't going to college. From Why Boys Fail:

My commentary running today on the back cover of the Chronicle of Higher Education takes an unvarnished look at what can happen to the campus social scene when the female/male imbalance passes 60% female. That’s the gender imbalance campus admissions officers fear most, the threshold where you can feel a palpable difference on campus. What this means to the campus social scene is guaranteed to make parents of college-bound girls cringe a bit

Moving past 60% at some point triggers what biologists refer to as the operational sex ratio, which in the animal kingdom refers to the changes in mating habits that occur when one sex outnumbers the other. Humans are not immune, including college campuses.

Fyi: By the year 2015, the average graduating class from four-year colleges will be 60%. Trying to maintain healthy relationships between the sexes is one reason so many college admissions officers quietly grant admissions preferences to men (not that they would call them preferences. Rather, they draw large, overlapping circles to explain an admission policy that, in the end, favors men and discriminates against women).

Interesting, to see that Colleges see this as a problem. Perhaps there will be more changes on the way or at least I should hope so. We've encouraged young women to go to school, that's not to say we shouldn't continue. Still we need the young men to be educated as well.

Hopefully we can get the ball rolling on that, especially in poor inner city neighborhoods where the children might need a decent education the most. In some respects I support Rev. James Meeks (who's also a state senator in Illinois) as he seeks to enroll CPS students (well it's more of a protest of inequities between school districts) in a suburban school district. Perhaps some attention has to be made in the area of school funding, although that's not the only place the spotlight should be.

Via Instapundit!

Heh, I might have missed a point here. I see Newsalert also picked up this story with the comment...

College is becoming a rather unhappy place for women. But,a very happy place for guys.

Heh, well that could be a selling point more than anything. It could be theorized that men don't want to compete with the ladies, but then if there aren't as many men around then one could say there isn't competition for the women. Of course that's not to say that's why a young man should go to college. ;-)