Academic Affirmative Action For Men?

Question

Many colleges are now lowering their academic standards for admission in order to admit more men. What do you think of this trend?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-04-02-our-view_x.htm

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E7DB1230F932A05750C0A9609C8B63

Answer 1

I know lots of people dislike affirmative action but I like the idea of adding encouragement and opportunities for those that need it. If boys need it for college-I'm for it. I have to laugh about the reasons for male problems though-if US education is feminized now-just when was it masculine? Women have been the primary instructors of US children for decades-way before feminism and the 1970's. I believe the issues are a lot more complex: why are boys not applying to colleges or interested in college or being accepted into colleges-but in the mean time-affirmative actions sounds good to me.

Answer 2

This is an old favorite here, feminised education systems leaving the boys out in the cold, the boisterous ones are medicated and the quiet ones lose interest, that's the theory anyway.

It sounds like it also might be in response to quotas and affirmative action for women.

Shame, i read the other day that 50% of women with degrees choose to be sahms.

This is all getting rather silly.

You however appear to derive pleasure for it, and wave it around like its some kind of victory.

What happened to you Tracey?

Answer 3

"nationwide shortage of highly qualified male applicants"

It doesn't matter what the standards are.  The standards are not the problem.  The problem in young men not wanting to attend college or finding other jobs they are more interested in.

Answer 4

I don't believe in Affirmative Action or special rights for anyone.

Answer 5

I don't care if you report me for what I'm about to say to you.

YOU ARE A A**HOLE YOU THINK THAT MEN ARE STUPID AND WOMEN ARE SMART.

WHAT COLLEGES NEED TO DO IS TO STOP MAKING ALL THE GENDER **** ALL ABOUT WOMEN,

THIS IS WHAT I WAS TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT YOU FEMENIST KIND,WEAK,PATHETIC AND STUPID.

Answer 6

I'm applying to college this year, and the competition is intense. I'm probably not going to get into most of the schools I apply to, even though last year they were considered "at my level." This is the biggest class ever, and even though I've taken 6 APs over the course of my high school career (and will have achieved the highest level of both Spanish and French possible by next year) I'm not the Supergirl type that the Ivies accept-- even the second-tier schools will not readily accept me.

The stress is horrible and the competition brutal. So I could say that I oppose affirmative action in this case. But I'm not sure.

I generally support affirmative action, because I believe its intent is a noble one-- to attempt to reverse the system of oppression created by a white, male-dominated society. The men applying to colleges will have advantages later in life because of male privilege. So it's a tough question.

I think the best thing would be not even to consider an applicant's gender in the admissions process... but the name would be a giveaway, and it's a lot harder to efface gender than it is to efface race.

I don't think I support this affirmative action, but I would support programs in high schools to attempt to bridge this college gap.

However, from the editorial, it sounds like more women are APPLYING, in which case, leave things as they are.

Answer 7

Well, studies have shown that on average guys don't do as well in high school because of the structured and controlled enviorment.  But they actually on average do better in college because of the more open and free enviorment. I don't see anything wrong with it since colleges have to have a certain amount of minorities and women anyway, the way I look at it its just evening the playing field.

Answer 8

I think there's something going on in our schools that tells these boys that it's not "cool" to be smart.  Just like a few years ago it wasn't "cool" for girls to be smart.

But I guess that isn't the question here...

I don't particularly like the hiring / admitting of anyone based on criteria other than merit.  (I don't like affirmative action that benefits women, either, btw).

I think that if we make it easier for them to get into colleges, they are going to expect things to be easy once their in college classes.. then what do we do.. lower the testing standards so that we graduate the same number of boys and girls?

Answer 9

Well it is a troubling trend to be sure. But what got us here is the interesting story. How about a generation of feminists taking root in the educational system to provide more opportunity for girls (the good ones) and making all us boys (the bad ones) hate ourselves and hate being in the feminist school system. That is probably why the POST-secondary enrollment trends are what they are today. You reap what you sow.

Answer 10

An interesting aspect of this, for me, is how the colleges seem mostly concerned about the attractiveness of their institution.  "If we have too many women (60%) we won't be getting as many applicants."  As with so many things, it sounds like an issue that is being driven by the dollar concerns.  The issue of what this says about young men and how they are responding to societal changes is largely ignored.  Could it be that young men see university as irrelevant?  Could higher education become viewed as something that is more for women?  I strongly endorse trying to recruit intelligent young men to enter professions and especially the notion of beginning to recruit at the high school level.  But I don't see the point of lowering admission standards.  That does not address the real issues - only the issue of creating a social "balance" (read maintaining the proper proftit margin).

Answer 11

No affirmative action for anyone.

Affirmative action and benevolence towards women is what got men in this place to begin with. Also, millions of children are growing up in single-parent homes where boys are expected to fend for themselves while girls are encouraged to do well in school. Many boys feel hopeless in this feminized society and end up working, in the army, or in prisons. We have to make society more boy-friendly by ending emasculating trends caused by feminism. If men fail, society fails.... We're beginning to see the repercussions now.

Answer 12

While I'm more than a little surprised that this is happening for men, I don't really care for it.  Affirmative action is almost always a bad idea.  I don't know why there are fewer men going to college these days but this isn't the way to correct things.

Answer 13

I think that in ten years we will be left with a staggering number of doctors/lawyers with a history of dumbness. God save their clients !

Answer 14

The reason remains unsolved. Something unhealthy is happening in K-12 schools, where many boys are disproportionately diagnosed with learning disabilities and over-medicated with attention-deficit drugs. While girls' academic aspirations continue to rise, boys' are flat-lining. Ideally, this disparity should be diagnosed and fixed at the secondary school level. But until it is, boys might need a leg up in college admissions.

Very interesting articles tracy,  I wounder why that is? Probably has something to do with the fact that girls are told they need to work harder then boys to get ahead while boys are encouraged to be "well rounded" IE play sports

Answer 15

I'm against affirmative action in any form. If you can't meet the standards,  men, women, black, white, orange, purple.... you don't get in.

Answer 16

Affirmative Action has been used to give people that have been supressed their rights.  I can understand why people are doing it now because they need more men in schools.

I interview for a job and out of the 60+ people that interviewed there was only 1 other white male and I was the only white male that was given the job.  I THINK they gave me that job because of affirmative action because most of the people applying for the job were black and they needed diversity.

I don't believe that there is a need for affirmative action for men right now.  Everyone should be judged equally, man or women, as to who goes to college.  

Notice, this is being done for races and still asians most always the top % per capita in colleges.

Answer 17

i don't like Affirmative Action in any form. you have to work for what you get. if you aren't smart enough to enter a specific college, you need to lower your standards and transfer when you've beefed up your academics a bit.

Answer 18

less guys want to go to college.

Answer 19

I think that it's time for the colleges to stop lowering their standards.  The did that for the black people and the women, and while it did mean that they got to go college sooner, it also means that the education since then has been watered down.

Men need to buck up and get with the program.

Answer 20

Be it college, police, military, firefighting or ballet it doesn't matter. Lowing standards is always wrong! It's because we keep lowing standards that we have so many teachers who are just taking the system for a ride and don't actually care about academics to begin with. We have dumbed down students because of lazy teachers. Fat lazy people are the end result of lowered standards.

Affirmative Action regardless of the benefactors is wrong too, its discrimination at its worse. No self respecting person should expect the government to force an employer or any institution to give them privilege over another.

The only people who support Affirmative Action are those devoid of self respect who walk in to every situation with their hand out and a chip on their shoulder.

Answer 21

I'm against Affirmative Action of any kind.  The real problem here is that, feminized education system is putting young boys at a disavantage.  This is something that need to be focus on and solve.

http://www.pbs.org/parents/raisingboys/s...

http://www.illinoisloop.org/gender.html

http://web.mac.com/wcbii/GenderDif/Welco...

Answer 22

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 23

I didnt know they could go down even further.

Get rid of title IX, engineering is a sussage fest and not too many guys go into arts, deal with it.

The college system in America is broken they car only about $$ and as the second link said, keeping the college attractive, over bullshit courses (who makes money with russian architecture) just so that u enroll and pay your 20 Grand.

Are less guy enrolling or is it about the percentage ? I dare to say the total number of guys in architecture science engineering etc. is what it has always been.

Answer 24

The question is what is our investment in Education at the College level returning us? What is the ROI? If we invest in Literature and Women's Studies how is that improving our culture or making us competitive in World Markets? It is not.

China and India have less natural resources yet graduate ten times as many Engineers as us. If we lose our technological and R&D edge we will lose our economic advantage. Our Mathematics, Engineering, and Hard Sciences are a majority Male area of Education. Which we are now trying to dumb down to get more Females interested in it. For PC reasons.

This is more Feminist inspired insanity. Are there anyone out there in Academia with a F*&^ing clue how the World really works? Are the idiots in the Feminist movement determined to reduce us to a Third World Nation? Already the unfunded liabilities of the US is up to $53 Trillion. That exceeds the total wealth of the Nation.

We are importing 70% of our oil and exporting $700 Billion a year. We are brain dead idiots to continue this nonsense. And worse yet this c**p has been going on for over 35 years. With the Energy Industry saying "We Need A Plan" over and over again. While we are preoccupied with issues of non importance.

Our Education system is a joke. We have Feminized it to the point where in California one in four Students does not graduate from High School. And we spend more money than other Nations and get less in return. We drug millions of our Boys with kiddie Cocaine and permanently damage their brains. This is like some Orwellian Nightmare that the US has become.

Young Feminists on this board deny there is a problem with Islam in the US. That there is no connection between the Clash of Cultures and our Feminized West that destroys Families for profit. There is no Social Safety Net in the Third World. Parents rely on their Children in their old age for Retirement. Without intact Families people perish.

The insular and self absorbed nature of western Cultures and lack of understanding of history, other Nations is appalling.

I am stunned at the idiocy I read on this board. I have lived overseas, speak two other Languages. And am stunned at how little grasp of history and culture our young people possess. But they do know who the American Idol winner is.

Answer 25

Thank you for the links - the first one in particular. If you go ALL the way down, you find this -

"Something unhealthy is happening in K-12 schools, where many boys are disproportionately diagnosed with learning disabilities and over-medicated with attention-deficit drugs. "

That is one of the main keys. That is the cost of dumbing down boys by administering them ADD drugs at every possible opportunity.

Radical changes are required here to address this issue with the bigger picture in mind, and not just to fix his ADD when hes running around as a kid. So for once, lets stop this silly nonsense of "I m tutoring my boy to respect girls by making him wash all the dishes", and give them the freedom they need - to enjoy, explore, and experiment.

* Edited to add the "silly nonsense" phrase.

* Edit to Robert G : "girls are told they need to work harder then boys to get ahead while boys are encouraged to be "well rounded" IE play sports" - Well said !

Answer 26

I dunt undersatould, wut you meen.

Answer 27

Its not acceptable in any form....by lowering standards or providing special entrance expectations, we are accepting lower quality output in the end.  And who would that benefit?

Same goes for making specific levels of hiring mandatory for a specific race or gender.  At our time in history, we need to strengthen our educational system and workforce, not implement systems that will water down the skill sets.

Answer 28

"The admissions director at American University in Washington, D.C., takes the position that boys and girls should be assessed equally. The result: AU's student population is two-thirds female."

Hmmm . . .