Maybe...stop treating men like predators - Updated with 2013

(This post updated with 2013 numbers--also from the Census. - 3/21/2015)

Via Meadia

Colleges are facing a problem they haven’t faced in nearly a decade: declining enrollment. New Census Bureau data reports that college enrollment dropped by about a half-million last year for the first time since 2006. Some of this may simply be a result of students who went to school in the late 2000s to avoid the recession finally graduating.

But college administrators are clearly worried that this may be the sign of a long-term trend. A recent survey of industry leaders found that over one-third are now concerned that they won’t be able to keep enrollments steady with tuition prices where they are now...

Mead didn't run the numbers, I did. The entire decline in enrollment can be attributed--almost perfectly--by the change in the number of men and women attending college.

Male enrollment 2011 = 9,123,000
Male enrollment 2012 = 8,602,000
Change = -521,000 / -5.7%

Female enrollment 2011 = 11,256,000
Female enrollment 2012 = 11,327,000
Change = +71,000 / +0.6%

Since overall college enrollment declined by 449,000; all but 1,000 of it can be attributed to the decline in men's enrollment.

(links for data from this page: http://www.census.gov/newsroom... )

A decline of over 5% of male enrollment should set off alarm bells, and would if the genders were reversed. The stories of schools treating men like predators abound, with men treated as guilty and needing to prove their innocence instead of the other way around. Perhaps men are getting the message that college is enemy territory and not for them.

Colleges should wake up and not turn away this cohort with their discriminatory anti-male policies.

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Update:

Some changes once 2013 is added. The men held fairly steady, but the women tanked. They went from 11.3 million to 10.9 million from 2012-2013:

Male enrollment 2011 = 9,123,000
Male enrollment 2012 = 8,602,000
Male enrollment 2013 = 8,536,000
Change 2011-2012 = -521,000 / -5.7%
Change 2012-2013 = -66,000 / -0.8%
Change 2011-2013 = -587,000 / -6.4%

Female enrollment 2011 = 11,256,000
Female enrollment 2012 = 11,327,000
Female enrollment 2013 = 10,931,000
Change 2011-2012 = +71,000 / +0.6%
Change 2012-2013 = -396,000 / -3.4%
Change 2011-2013 = -325,000/ -2.9%

Difference between men and women, 2013:  2,395,000 more women than men, or 28% more women.