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On April 5 and 6, President Walter M. Bortz III participated in a symposium at
Morehouse College in Atlanta on "Reconnecting Males to Liberal
Educations." The symposium drew about 75 participants to discuss the
declining percentage of men in higher education. The 40-year decline
in the percentage of men receiving bachelors degrees has been masked by the
increasing number of both men and women enrolling in institutions of higher
education. In 1980, 51% of bachelors degrees awarded went to men; in 1970,
57%; in 1960, 65%. The percentage dropped to 46.8% in 1990 and to 43.9% in
1998, only slightly higher than the percentage of men (43.1%) receiving bachelors
degrees during World War II. This decline has occurred despite the
fact that men continue to constitute the majority of the present college-age population (51.2%) and continue to score higher than females on
the majority of standardized tests. Although varying by degree, the
decline is present in all racial and economic groups. The symposium
focused on the potential areas of research into this phenomenon since there is
little hard data that addresses the reasons for the decline.
Chad M. Krouse '02, (left) recently-elected President of the H-SC Student Body,
and Brandon E. Randall '04 (center) attended the symposium with President Bortz.
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