Private Schools Wonder, Why More Women? More Than Half Of Higher-Ed Students In State Are Women
More than half the students at private universities and colleges around the state are women, a puzzling trend that is raising concerns among some administrators.
At Seattle Pacific University, 66 percent of the undergraduate student body is female, up from 60 percent a decade ago. At Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma and the University of Puget Sound, the figure hovers at 61 percent and 60 percent respectively.
“Why is it changing? Why are the scales tipping more and more? I don’t know,” said Laura Polcyn, PLU’s vice president for admissions and enrollment services.
“We would like to see it more closely aligned back to where we were 10 years ago,” said Janet Ward, dean of enrollment services at SPU. “I don’t know that we would be able to ever achieve a 50-50 ratio.”
Some students say it’s because smaller schools tend to be safer and provide more individual attention.
“The biggest thing that sometimes happens around here is bologna being thrown on cars, and I like it that way,” said Victoria Brown, 21, an SPU senior majoring in Christian education.
“Professors here, because they deal with a lot of female students, are very encouraging to women academically,” said Sarah Johnson, 20, an SPU junior majoring in history.
“You can’t get a date, yeah. But you might get into graduate school.”
Administrators also note that some of the biggest majors at a school like SPU - nursing and teacher education - tend to appeal more to women. But even traditionally male-dominated programs, such as electrical engineering, are drawing significant numbers of women.
The trend also reflects the increasing number of women in higher education in general, a figure which has soared by one-quarter since 1985. Women now fill 54 percent of the seats in higher education nationwide and in Washington state’s four-year colleges.
Even state schools like The Evergreen State College outside Olympia, with just over 4,000 undergraduates, began the academic year with women making up 58 percent of the student body.
The University of Washington and Washington State University, however, enroll men and women in about equal numbers on their main campuses, though branch campuses attract more women.
Students at the private schools seem unconcerned by the skewed numbers.
“I don’t walk around the campus saying, ‘There’s a guy! I haven’t seen one in 10 minutes!”’ said Amy Wagner, 21, a senior at SPU majoring in psychology and elementary education. “You don’t really think about it.”
Last year, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a consortium of private liberal arts institutions, proposed a study to find out why their colleges have been drawing a disproportionate number of women.
But little headway was made, said Alan McIvor, vice president for enrollment services at Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., where this year’s freshman class was 60 percent women.
“People like me argue that gender balance is important in a residential college,” McIvor said. “Others just don’t even understand why I raise the issue.”
While he doesn’t advocate lowering admissions standards for men, McIvor is planning to tailor Beloit’s mailings to appeal to prospective male students.
xxxx SCHOOL TREND The number of women in higher education has been increasing in general, by one quarter since 1985. Women fill 54 percent of the seats in higher education nationwide and in Washington state’s four-year colleges.