Editor's Note: The following op-ed was written by Michael Mayer (Epsilon Phi/Central Missouri 2004). It originally appeared on Real Clear Policy. Michael Mayer is the CEO of Theta Chi Fraternity and the President of the Fraternity Executives Association.
As a father of two young girls, I celebrate the educational opportunities that have emerged for women in recent decades. I want my daughters to have the same opportunities as their male peers both in the classroom and in the professional world. They should receive the same chances to succeed and advance to the highest echelons of their chosen fields as men have been for centuries.
I also have a one-year-old son. I worry that the education system that he will soon enter is no longer positioned to help him succeed academically or in the real world.
Richard Reeves offers compelling evidence justifying this concern in his landmark work, “Of Boys and Men,” which made President Barack Obama’s list of recommended books last summer. In it, Reeves argues that efforts over the years to level the playing field in all areas of life were necessary, laudable and overdue. Yet, in many cases, these efforts had the unintended consequence of worsening the condition of and opportunities for men.
Nowhere is this clearer than higher education. College campuses, once home either exclusively or primarily to men, now contend with dwindling numbers of male students. According to Gallup, the rate of men who completed high school and enrolled in college fell a staggering 8 points between 2011 and 2023, with fewer than 4 in 10 college-aged males attending a higher education institution. Not only does this present a serious social problem for the country, but it also poses an urgent fiscal issue to universities who need bodies in desks.
This matter is worsened by dropping enrollment numbers, especially post-COVID. While there is some cause of optimism for rebounding student populations among so-called “Power Four” schools, many smaller, regional and private schools are struggling to maintain enrollment.
Colleges and universities have been awakened to the stakes, and many have turned their attention to returning men to their classrooms. To correct this troubling trend, administrators are now marketing activities and interests they deem “masculine” to entice prospective male students to consider their schools.
The University of Vermont, which now enrolls twice as many women as men, understands how extreme their gender gap has become. That’s why their “Office of Men and Masculinities” is developing supposedly male-centric programming on their campus, like entrepreneurship pitch competitions and hunting classes.
At the University of Montana, where just 42 percent of students are men, administrators hope to reverse falling male enrollment at their school by “send[ing] targeted emails to prospective students highlighting its hunting class, forestry program and recreational opportunities,” Hechinger Report discovered. This advertising prominently features content like, “Have you ever eaten fresh meat that you harvested yourself?” and “There are few other connections with the natural world better than swinging a sharp axe with the smell of pine in your nose.”
While schools more deliberately pursuing male students should be commended for their situational awareness, they do not need to exclusively focus on clever marketing campaigns to win men back. They already have capable, ready partners willing to do that for them: fraternities.
There is ample social science confirming the benefits of these single-sex organizations. For thousands of years, men and women have organized themselves into groups to achieve societal good. Millions of men throughout America have found service and fellowship opportunities that meaningfully enriched their lives, from the Boy Scouts in their early years to the Knights of Columbus as an adult.
Fraternities are special because men foster lifelong bonds that begin at one of the most pivotal points in their lives: young adulthood. Here, men find a home away from home. They meet older male role models who will help them figure out the world and guide them onto a path of responsibility and care for others. They become more involved on campus and in their communities. And fraternity men support each other and hold each other accountable, which is especially important amid the compounding loneliness epidemic that has left far too many males isolated and unmotivated.
Men want these institutions, and they crave these relationships. This is not wishful thinking on the part of fraternities. Executives in this community see it in surging levels of interest in fraternal life.
Indeed, even as male enrollment drops at colleges and universities across America, participation in fraternities has markedly increased. In fact, membership has grown significantly not only post-COVID but also year-over-year. This occurred in spite of media coverage that has, on the whole, focused on isolated negative incidents about these organizations rather than the overwhelmingly positive and impactful benefits for their members and for society in general.
History shows us that when college students show us how they think, administrators ought to pay attention. When Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of Columbia University, legend has it that staff consulted him about where to install new sidewalks. He told the designers to instead plant grass, observe where students would naturally beat a path over the course of a year and then put a sidewalk there.
Young men have made it clear the path they wish to trod: community with each other. It does not take years of research or focus-grouped advertising campaigns to bring them back to campus. Universities just need to give them what they want and, in so many cases, need.
Schools who proudly promote fraternity on campus and the benefits derived from it can attract the young men they need. Then, our organizations give them the personal connection that keeps them in school and helps them become successful, well-rounded adults. We do it without games or gimmicks. We simply offer brotherhood.