As I turned the corner to Grace 2, I heard a door close, with a slow, steady click following behind me. It didn’t sound like high heels. Curiously, I looked behind my shoulder only to meet the gaze of a rare specimen on Union’s campus: a well-dressed male.
From the leather shoes that matched his belt up to the maroon collared shirt and well-groomed facial hair, he looked like a man. It was refreshing.
A casual stroll through the rows of Union’s chapel will attest to the truth that well-dressed men are in low supply. Yet, despite this travesty, males in general continue to be in high demand. As females continue to outnumber males, Bible-believing, good-looking, single men have morphed into the new campus minority.
The average onlooker touring campus may not notice the gender gap. However, from inside, the gap is evident. According to Student Life records, Union University’s total undergraduate student enrollment is 1,350, with a gender distribution of 38 percent male students and 62 percent female students.
One reason for the decrease of men coming to Union is the influence of parents.
“From my experience as an enrollment counselor, parents have been much more willing to pay for their daughter to go to private school,” said Stephen Hauss, former undergraduate admissions counselor and now the Director for Pharmacy Admissions and Recruitment.
“It’s a protective thing,” Hauss said. “Union is seen as a very safe place, a place that puts you in the right position. For a son, they’re a little less worried about the environment. They think their son is tougher. We have dads that are willing to do anything for their daughter, and that’s a great thing. But I do think that the men that we’re raising need that same kind of attention.”
Union’s female predominant student base is not unique. In fact, it follows a nationwide trend across college campuses. Since the 1970’s, female students have surpassed male students on college campuses. Today, more women than men are attending college nationwide, accounting for half of the students in law, medical and business graduate programs.
This gender gap reshapes social dynamics, especially on a college campus.
As Jon Birger explains in a recent article for Money Magazine and in his book DATE-ONOMICS, an oversupply of women can cause men to value women less.
“When men are in oversupply, the dating culture emphasizes courtship and monogamy,” Birger said. “But when women are in oversupply—as they are today at most U.S. colleges and universities—men play the field and women are more likely to be treated as sex objects.”
Similarly, sociologists Nigel Barber and Robert O’Brien observed from their studies that “elevated rates of sexual assault are a predictable feature of communities with oversupplies of women.”
In contrast, an undersupply of women causes the opposite effect. Columbia University economics professor Lena Edlund conducted a study in China investigating the repercussions of “lopsided sex ratios” created in part by China’s one-child policy. Edlund and her co-authors found that “men treat women better, and protect them more, when women are in shorter supply.”
Similar to the fictional island of Themyscira, the female-dominated country of Wonder Woman, Union’s overwhelming feminine presence changes community life. From many women I have asked, the gender gap at Union is frustrating. However, guys don’t seem to mind.
“Guys at Union have it made,” said sophomore journalism major Cameron Woodard.
I think he’s right.
Males benefit from having a large pool of women to choose from when it comes to dating. With so many girls to pick through, it’s easy to find another girl if the one you’re dating doesn’t work. To that end, the odds of a guy graduating with a wife is pretty high.
On campus, this gender gap has perpetuated social awkwardness in the interaction between the opposite sexes. Young men may feel uncomfortable initiating relationships that are simply friendship. Yet, platonic friendship is one of the healthiest experiences students anticipate in college life. Women might feel the need to initiate conversation because good guys at Union don’t stay single for long.
“The guys that are quality at Union meet a girl right away because there are a lot of great girls here,” said Hauss. “Some girls never get a chance to date a great guy at Union because they’re all taken. That happens.”
With men capable of taking only half the girls at Union to Cardinal Ball, rivalries and catty disagreements naturally occur between females. Girls dating brothers within the same fraternity or guys dating girls within the same circle of friends can become frightfully awkward. Scrambling to find a sorority date for a formal can turn an enchanted evening into the Hunger Games. Let’s just say enemies can be made pretty quickly.
With so few guys, many women often miss out on friendships with the opposite sex. To avoid gossip or the notion that sharing a Cobo meal would mean a relationship, some guys avoid spending time alone with women entirely. This fear causes passivity to fester, discouraging men from being risk takers, and makes dating less common.
“Guys don’t ask girls out on a date because they don’t have to,” said Bryan Carrier, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students.
If only guys knew that taking the risk to speak how they feel makes them more of a man and not less of one, campus life would look different. As a result of this perpetuating passivity, “hang out” culture is thriving while traditional dating is becoming less common.
Mindful of the effect that the gender gap is causing on campus, admissions is hustling to draw more men to campus.
“We’re trying to recruit guys,” Hauss said emphatically. “I want guys to have the experience I had. That’s why I became an enrollment counselor. I felt like I had something great to sell. The experience of coming to Union and being in the best possible environment with incredible professors, students and all the positive things that come with the Union education… I saw that as something that other guys should want.”
While the empty field of bachelors can be depressing, it’s not the end of the world. The purpose of college doesn’t have to be finding someone. It should be about finding Christ and discovering our purpose within His will. Union has intentionally cultivated a spiritual haven for Christ-centered women in which they can walk hand in-hand with other godly sisters in Christ. Unlike other colleges, Union is a well spring of wisdom that prepares godly women to thrive.
“We always have expectations of what we want the end result to be,” said Carrier. “We often don’t understand the value of the journey that happens along the way. The same is true of biblical manhood and biblical womanhood and the journey.”
The time and space available to young women can and should be used as a time to grow emotionally, spiritually and academically. Even though the gender ratio at Union isn’t ideal, it challenges women who are seeking the Lord to focus on Him wholeheartedly and revel in the wonder and value of the journey.
“You don’t have to have it figured out,” said Carrier with a wise smile. “You don’t have to have an end goal in mind. It’s okay to talk to people and to interact. It’s okay to date. It’s okay to live the journey even if you don’t have the end outcome figured out yet. After all, that’s what dating is all about.”
Illustration by Tamara Friesen
I’m not sure if tying “Bible-believing” and “good-looking” together as attributes of men that are ”morphing into the new campus minority” is a good idea. In fact, I think that is a degrading statement both to men and what it means to be “Bible-believing”.
While echoing the previous comment, I would like to address your interesting view of dating. Dating should have an end-goal, which should be marriage. Dating for “the journey” and dating “for fun” are very poor, and unbiblical reasons to date. The reason you have a problem with the men on this campus is clearly because you are looking in the wrong places. I’m sorry that your experience with Union men has been poor, but it might be because your standard of what a “Bible-believing” man should be really doesn’t make sense. Also, a “Bible-believing” man does not have to dress to your standards (that’s really not Biblical at all). If you look for low-quality guys, you will find them, but if you look for high-quality men of God, you can find them too.
I present to you: the David Kagaruki Model.