Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has an article about anti-male bias on higher education campuses, in the Jewish World Review. He notes many of the well- and lesser-known varieties of this bias, but fails to mention one counterintuitive reason why it has occurred.
Everyone knows campuses have been under enormous pressure to increase minority enrollments, pressure from the federal government, state governments, professional and accreditation societies, and even donors. What is almost never mentioned is that, for complicated cultural reasons, female POCs are substantially easier to recruit, retain, and graduate than their male counterparts.
Hardly anyone except higher ed insiders knows this, and none of these want to admit it or claim it as an important reason for proliferating pro-coed resources and aid. Their fear is that those pressuring them about minority enrollments will refine the pressure to demand they produce more male POC graduates, something hard experience has taught is a difficult, disappointing task.
Creating conditions which facilitate the recruitment, retention and graduation of female POC students has helped higher ed generate the POC "numbers" that keep Washington and state legislatures off their collective backs. You can bet they report lots of POC students (most women), without cross-tabbing the gender and race/ethnicity, which would reveal not much going on in the male POC quadrant.
Perhaps it is time to admit the failure of higher education to serve significant numbers of male POC students beyond the handful who are varsity athletes. Doing something about the problem won't be any kind of easy. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
