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Aug. 26

Taking Care of Their Own

Saint John’s University

In new promotional brochures, Saint John’s University uses images of skiing and sports to recruit men.

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By Jack Stripling

For many colleges, dwindling male enrollment has become a source of some concern. But at Saint John’s University, recruiting men is a matter of survival.

Saint John’s, an all-male Roman Catholic university in Collegeville, Minn., has been in the business of recruiting men since it was founded by Benedictines in the mid 1800s. So as some colleges across the country report declines in male enrollment, it is perhaps of little surprise that Saint John’s faculty members and administrators have stepped up to grapple with what some view as growing problem in higher education.

“We see it as a crisis, really, the lack of involvement of men,” said Gar Kellom, executive director of the Center for Men’s Leadership and Service at Saint John’s. “We’ve looked at all the data and said somebody’s got to do something.”

Kellom calls the enrollment dips at some colleges part of a broader picture of disengagement among males, who are less likely to participate in programs like study abroad while in college, and who are also less likely — throughout their lives — to go to the doctor or volunteer.

To address these concerns, Saint John’s has created a task force to look at male enrollment issues, and has been collecting data among the university’s students to find out what makes men tick. The university also helps organize annual conferences for men’s colleges, placing the onus on all-male institutions to confront issues like enrollment decline.

“The men’s colleges never even talked to each other [before this],” Kellom said.

There is considerable debate within academe about whether enrollment declines are an issue for all males or just select socioeconomic and ethnic groups. Current trend lines, however, have been a source of concern for some who track and study the data.

Male students made up 52 percent of the U.S. undergraduate population in 1976, but that figure dropped to 43 percent by 2004, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The difference between male and female participation was found to be particularly stark among black students, where women outnumbered men in college enrollments by 29 percentage points in 2004.

Strategies Emerge for Male Recruitment

While Saint John’s is among a handful of all-male colleges in the U.S., it differs considerably from its counterparts. Saint John’s has a partnership with the College of Saint Benedict, a women’s college whose students attend classes and participate in extracurricular activities with the men of Saint John’s. While the residence halls at Saint John’s and Saint Benedict aren’t mixed sex, nearly every other part of life on the two campuses is coeducational.

Saint John’s and Saint Benedict also share an admissions office, and filling the seats at Saint John’s has posed a greater challenge for nearly the last decade. For every year between 1997 and 2007, Saint Benedict’s enrollment exceeded that of Saint John’s by somewhere between 1 and 3 percent. In 2004 and 2005, enrollment at Saint John’s dropped slightly, but it’s now back on the upswing.

With a total enrollment of about 4,000 between the two colleges, admissions officials say they have had to work to hold down enrollment at Saint Benedict — where they receive more applications — while being more proactive in recruiting men to Saint John’s.

Before the late 1990s, there was little discussion at Saint John’s about targeting men differently. But as a small — but persistent — gap between the two institutions’ enrollments became clear, Saint John’s launched its “Play the Game” campaign. The campaign touts that the partnered colleges – situated on an idyllic 3,200-acre stretch of woods, lakes, and prairie — are ideal for skiing, rowing, fishing, running

“At least as an intro or as a way to capture students’ attention, we really have leveraged athletics,” said Tom Voller-Berdan, director of admissions at Saint John’s and Saint Benedict.

Recently published brochures feature pictures of students playing basketball or ice fishing.

But the emphasis on sports and recreation still has broad appeal for women, who have continued to apply to Saint Benedict in larger numbers despite the targeted recruitment of men, Voller-Berdan said.

“It really turns out that any male recruitment initiative really works better for women,” he said. “Everything works for women.”

Saint John’s successful football team, which is the winningest Division III program in history, is also a potential draw for students. To capitalize on the team’s successes, the university launched a program called “Saturdays at Saint John’s” in the late 1990s, bringing interested students on campus to meet with admissions coordinators in the morning, and encouraging them to stick around for a football game later in the day.

In its recruitment of men, Saint John’s focuses very little on the fact that residence halls are all-male. Voller-Berdan acknowledges that there’s “not a lot of market for a men’s college out there,” but notes that students typically cite the single-sex dorms as a positive when they graduate.

“It’s in some ways sort of the largest fraternity in the world,” he said. “It’s 2,000 guys hanging out in their boxer shorts at 1 o’clock.”

Playing up Gender Roles, Only to Break Them Down

It may seem a bit perplexing that Saint John’s lures male students to campus by appealing to their perceived machismo and love of football, only to challenge those stereotypes during the course of students’ academic careers. The Center for Men’s Leadership and Service, which reaches about 2,000 students each year through activities, is designed in part to break down students’ traditional notions of masculinity.

Michael Kimmel, a leading gender scholar and professor of sociology at Sate University of New York at Stony Brook, said he sees no conflict between Saint John’s recruitment methods and its broader goals of encouraging men to explore masculinity as a social construct.

“You’ve got to minister to them where they are, and not where you want them to be,” said Kimmel, author of the new book, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men.

Furthermore, it just makes sense to appeal to men’s interests if you’re trying to recruit them, Kimmel said.

“When the going gets tough, the administration builds another gym,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing; it’s a way to reach guys.”

As head of the men’s center, Kellom has also tried to get some of the toughest men on campus to participate in the center’s activities. Kellom calls these men “pied pipers,” because they can effectively generate a following of men who might otherwise be leery of exploring gender issues.

Brett Saladin, a tight end on Saint John’s football team, has emerged as one of Kellom’s pied pipers. When Saladin was sidelined with an injury two seasons ago, he successfully campaigned to become the “Men’s Issues Representative” in the university’s Student Senate. That naturally led to more involvement with the men’s center on campus, including organizing an all-male trip to Trinidad, where students worked with orphans who had HIV.

The mostly unspoken aim of men’s center trips is to encourage male students to get involved in volunteering, something men don’t do in the same numbers as women. There is also the hope that, surrounded by children facing hardships, the men will hone their parental instincts, and also develop greater sensitivity. These goals, however, were seldom mentioned by Saladin when he tried to recruit his friends on a recent trip. He just told them it would be cool to go to Trinidad

“We’re not going to sit there and say, ‘Hey, come be a man’ or ‘Hey, do you want to know what a man is? Come with us.’ It’s not that direct,” Saladin said. “It’s more or less the experience. If we can get them to go [on the trip], the experience they will have will show — not just them, but all of us — what it really means to be a man.”

Exploring Gender in a Catholic College

While it’s not a requirement that students at Saint John’s and Saint Benedict be Catholic, 70 percent of them are. And Catholicism is undeniably interwoven into the experience on campus, where monks and nuns live in residence halls alongside students.

Catholicism surely looms large on campus, but the teachings of the Church do not inhibit a thoughtful and candid exploration of gender roles, according to Ozzie Mayers, a professor of English and gender education and development at Saint John’s and Saint Benedict.

The Church’s doctrines on abortion, homosexuality and women in the priesthood, for instance, do not prohibit open dialogue about those issues within the context of a gender studies course, Mayers said.

“We are paying particular attention to those topics because they are challenging topics for institutions that are based in the Catholic tradition,” he said.

“Now there might be other religious institutions where [discussion] is more filtered [by Church doctrine], let’s say,” he added. “Here, there is a tradition of really being welcoming to a variety of points of view. Now, one of those points of view is always clearly the Catholic Church’s point of view. It’s not that it is ignored, for certain.”

Patrick Sitzer, a Saint John’s student who participates in a spirituality group at the men’s center, says he hasn’t seen the role of religion at the university deter any activities in the men’s center. Sitzer is a practicing Catholic, but he says he’s been joined by friends in the spirituality group who “could care less” about the Church.

Sitzer also notes that the university’s ties to the monastery offer a college experience that’s truly unique: “You’ll be eating dinner at night, and there will be monks in the cafeteria eating ice cream cones.”

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Comments

“It may seem a bit perplexing that Saint John’s lures male students to campus by appealing to their perceived machismo and love of football, only to challenge those stereotypes during the course of students’ academic careers.”

Not perplexing at all, men know this scenario well; “after we are married I will change him!” And we wonder why men are losing interest in higher education....

Leave them alone, at 8:00 am EDT on August 26, 2008

What’s wrong with loving football?

Even girls do.

I agree. Leave the guys alone. There is much to admire in them just the way they are. If you want to teach them something, teach them to become manly men—not girly men.

EngProf, at 10:40 am EDT on August 26, 2008

Men in college

The decline of men in college may be traced to the unintended consequence of “equal opportunity” in the sports programs. Men think and act differently from women. Take away things that attract men and what do you expect. Of course, campus liberals will never make the connection and male enrollment will continue to decline. I am amazed that with the women outnumbering the men significantly, the college administrations still consider the women to have “minority” status. The academic community is truely an “Alice in Wonderland” place.

George, at 11:45 am EDT on August 26, 2008

Perhaps it’s time to consider making the university as a whole a coeducational institution as so many women’s colleges have had to do to retain their enrollment. Most of them have thrived as a result. I find it upsetting that St. Ben’s must control its recruitment and enrollment to allow spaces for male students, who are obviously talking with their feet and not coming to St. John’s. That sounds like gender discrimination to me and could provoke a lawsuit by a woman applicant. AD Higher Education Consultant

Anne Deming, at 2:00 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

A noble goal

It’s great that St. John’s is trying to encourage men to enroll, rather than giving it up as a lost cause. It’s important that we give as many people as possible the skills to survive and contribute in this globalized competitive world.

Lisa, at 3:30 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

It’s all about image

Studying the male psyche sounds a little too broad unless the study is confined to the demographics of its male target audience. Perhaps administration officials might consider reviewing the university’s branding strategy. The image now being conveyed obviously is not working for the men.

Fausto Capobianco, at 6:55 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

Here is the complete list of all-male colleges left in the United States, according to UniversitySource: 1) College of Saint Benedict Saint Joseph(MN) Private ~2000 students 2) Deep Springs College Dyer(NV) Private 26 3) Hampden-Sydney College Hampden-Sydney(VA) Private ~1122 4) Morehouse College Atlanta(GA) Private ~28005) Wabash College Crawfordsville(IN) Private ~900

That is a grand total of 6,848 young men in all-male colleges in the US. And given the close coordination between St. John’s and the College of St. Benedict, it may not really count. Take a look at the St. John’s web site, and you will be a long long time figuring out that there is an all-male college buried in there. And hard pressed indeed to find a picture that does not feature a guy and a gal. In short, the species known as “Collegium Viri” is nearly extinct.

By rough count the number of women’s college is slightly larger — about 31 still standing. By my rough count at least three have gone coed in the last three years: Regis in Mass., Gwynedd Mercy in PA, and Randolf in Va. Wells College in NY also went cord, perhaps 4 years ago. The rolls continue to shorten.

CT_Woods, Jaded Cynic, at 7:00 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

They advertise themselves as a men’s school, with images of ice fishing, championship football, and new gyms. Yet once the students are in, they try to turn the men into touchy-feely Oprah-philes with “men’s issues representatives” and coerced AIDS volunteer work in Haiti. OK.

They advertise themselves as Catholic, but once the students are in, they do their damndest to encourage rejection of Catholic theology on women priests, abortion, sex, etc. OK.

I just don’t understand how this is not a formula for rip-roarin’ success. They’re not bursting at the seams with all the men wanting in? What’s up with that?

Rhodium Heart, at 10:25 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

Only In Academia

Only an academic could contemplate such cognitive dissonance. On the one hand they lure men to college with sports and then put them through what amounts to a four year gender re-education camp—a classic bait and switch. The way to lure men back to college is to educate them with real academics and not subject them to a male hostile social experiment. If we don’t stop this nonsense, it will be disastrous for society.

Lee.murrah@tipss.biz, at 10:30 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

There are only 2 men’s colleges left in the country: Wabash and Hampton-Sydney. Others mentioned in this article share a campus, enrollment, and facilities with women’s colleges. Of which there are some 75 or so in existence (less than the 92 my senior year at Wabash, when we could also count Rose-Hulman, VMI, and the Citadel in our column).

Wabash ‘90

jon, at 10:30 pm EDT on August 26, 2008

Things have reasons

I went to college in Moorhead, MN in the late 80s. If I had it to do over again, I would have skipped the 4-year program and just done a 2-year tech school program. I’d have had an easier time of it as a software engineer if I had.

I was the son of two teachers, and it was simply understood that I would earn a Bachelor’s degree. When I got to Moorhead State, it was a VERY rude awakening. I was confronted with how stupid men were, and how evil they were for “oppressing” women. Say WHAT? Some of my best friends were women. None of them had ever complained about me “oppressing” them, then or now or at any time in between.

We were not really encouraged to voice a contrary opinion, either, in the liberal arts classes I had to take to graduate. Men oppressed women, white people oppressed black people, and white Christian men were the lowest of the low.

It doesn’t surprise me AT ALL that they are having trouble getting men to attend college. Why should they? Unless they’re planning a career in academia, it’s not worth it. In the early 90s some of the larger companies required a 4-year degree to get in the door. This is true less often these days. More important are technical and problem-solving skills, and a good work ethic.

They don’t care if you’ve taken a women’s studies course or a seminar on race relations.

Higher education also needs to forget “diversity” as they know it. There are people of all colors all over the place these days, and people are mostly okay with that. Try voicing a conservative view out loud within earshot of the wrong people on a campus, though, and you’ll be pilloried like I was when I spoke up in class once to question the value of affirmative action. I’m pretty sure that was the day I went from an A to a C.

Dan Nelson, at 5:05 am EDT on August 27, 2008

So, as usual, the message is...

that normal guys are somehow “broken” and need to be “fixed” by silly pomo “gender studies” approaches.

The guys are figuring it out all right: they’re better off — and will probably make more — by learning a trade and skipping college, its associated debt, and the whole “deconstruction” experience altogether.

Foobarista, at 5:05 am EDT on August 27, 2008

Masculinity as a social construct

This in a nutshell is why men are turning off of college and higher ed. More lecturing on what’s wrong with masculinity and how to better behave like women. I’d rather my son attend Hillsdale than a school bent on re-socializing men.

Peg C., at 7:35 am EDT on August 27, 2008

All is not lost, only a change of direction required. The problem is that places like St. Johns think they are going the correct way...

What is required is the simple realization that while you treat men and women equally under the law, they are not the same thing. If women are nuturing, men are protective. These are really two sides of a coin. If you want guys to volunteer to treat children in Haiti, all you must do is phrase it correctly: “We need your help treating and protecting children from aids in Haiti. How do you think that’ll play in your resume?” Everything you need in one package.

Teaching a man is about playing to his strengths, to help him strengthen areas of weakness. It ISN’T about taking strength away.

It may be a dream of a dream that society in general will figure that out...

D, at 9:20 am EDT on August 27, 2008

Just curious...

I wonder how many of the commenters were educated in Catholic colleges and universities. I attended the University of Notre Dame in the 1980s, my first Catholic educational experience, and was pleasantly suprised, perhaps even shocked by the almost dual personalities of ND male students. (this was stil in the 3 to 1 male/female ratio days) On the one hand, most were beer-swilling football fanatics. On the other, these same men were kind, giving volunteers who tutored local elementary students, served as Big Brothers, worked tirelessly for charities both during the school year and in summer. And religious, ethical debate was always welcomed... it was ALWAYS clear where the Cahtolic Church stood on issues, but it is also an intellectual academic institution. Blind faith was not encouraged, rather debate and understanding of all sides of issues so that true understanding was fostered. In my opinion, Catholic men’s colleges need to recruit them with sports because of the developmental level of many 18-year old boys. But they mature into REAL MEN (BTW, real men can love many things in addition to football...) as part of their education. Keep up the good work, St. John’s!!!

ND Alum, at 1:15 pm EDT on August 27, 2008

respone to anne

From Anne, a higher education consultant (nice gig if you can get it I bet), we have this perfect encapsulation of myopic feminist thinking:

“That sounds like gender discrimination to me and could provoke a lawsuit by a woman applicant. AD Higher Education Consultant”

Funny that Anne only wants to note the discrimination on one side, which is the typical feminist position. What about the open gender discrimination in favor of women as ‘minorities’? What about the *obvious* case for discrimination that males could make given that women now outnumber them 3-to-2 at college. That doesn’t correlate to their ‘representation in the community’. So why isn’t it prima facie evidence of discrimination? I’ve certainly heard the argument used for women.

b, at 4:20 pm EDT on August 27, 2008

Thoughts of an SJU Grad

It seems that most of the comments about this story say more about the commentators’ preexisting cultural leanings than they say about Saint John’s, Saint Ben’s, or the actual story.

First of all, the whole point of the story is that St. John’s continues to do pretty well with recruiting men. Those implying that St. John’s advertising or policies are preventing it from achieving its recruitment goals are ignoring the reality. The academic profiles of the incoming classes continue to exceed those of years past as well, so they are not lowering standards for acceptance to meet these goals. Likewise, SJU has a 90% retention rate, so nothing it is doing is turning people away.

Also, the notion that St. John’s is “a four year gender re-education camp” and is “lecturing on what’s wrong with masculinity and how to better behave like women” is absolutely ridiculous. Anyone who has attended St. John’s or even visited knows this is not the case. The Men’s Center is one of many different centers or groups on campus. No student is required to join or attend a single event they put on. I would venture to say that most students do not. Similarly, gender studies is not in any way required and I would again say that most students choose not to take those courses. However, I also object to the premise that the point of the men’s center is to ‘feminize’ men. Despite having very little contact with it during my time at SJU, it seemed to me that the Men’s Center sought to encourage men to be themselves and become complete persons rather than feel the need to conform to the stereotypical frat guy role. I think the Notre Dame Alum who commented is the only one who understands this. St. John’s takes in 18 year old young adults and helps them grow into complete persons by the time they graduate. Like the ND alum said, if you go to SJU, you will find Beer-Drinking men packing the football stadium every Saturday afternoon. But you will also find that many of those same men are very intelligent people, dedicated to their academic work, have studied abroad, are artists or musicians, and are active in the campus or local community. These qualities are not mutually exclusive.

Furthermore, St. Ben’s and St. John’s are co-educational but are 2 separate institutions. Thus, the notion that “St. Ben’s must control its recruitment and enrollment to allow spaces for male students,” is completely false. St. Ben’s and St. John’s are already pretty large when compared to other MN private liberal arts colleges. They both are about at capacity for the number of students they can enroll and do not desire to grow any larger. Both are seeing increased demand and are admitting brighter and brighter classes every year.

I also object to the idea that these schools aren’t really Catholic institutions. There is free and open discussion about matters of faith and doctrine and much of it takes place in theology classes (2 are required) where members of the monastic community serve as professors. The idea that one cannot question the official stance of the Catholic Church on some issues and still be Catholic is ridiculous. St. John’s Abbey has produced a number of great thinkers and theologians, including Father Godfrey Diekmann (OSB), who played a major role in the Second Vatican Council. It is sad that some would question the faith of people like Diekmann who dedicated their lives to their faith but disagreed with the Church’s official stance on some issues.

Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to visit St. John’s. It is an absolutely beautiful campus and I don’t think you will find a more welcoming and friendly community anywhere. Indeed, the campus and the community are the reasons why I chose St. John’s and why plenty of bright young men will always want to attend SJU.

Peter, at 7:20 pm EDT on October 17, 2008

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