By Eric Jankiewicz and Charley Perez
Illustration by Diana Sun
We, as males, have the sturdy surface of being twenty-something. Our age denotes that we are men but it seems that most college guys are still in a limbo between adulthood and adolescence.
Higher education was once an institution where men excelled and were the majority. Now, women are becoming the majority. In John Jay women bolster a 56 percent in undergrad and the disparity widens in the graduate program with 65 percent. These declining numbers may be explained by one factor. The thing that men pride themselves in being is just that, being a man. A combination of gritty characters like John Wayne and a twisted interpretation of American independence.
Professor Abby Stein is the faculty adviser for the Vera Fellows Program, a year-long internship that accepts students with a GPA of at least 3.3. In 2008, when they first started the program in John Jay,there were no male applicants.
In the four years since, the program has slowly become more equal but Stein has noticed that the program poses a special challenge for men to complete.
“It has been more difficult to keep them” in the program, she said. “They tend to not ask for help.” This often leads to them academically suffering for trying to “handle the issues themselves.
And that, my fellow man-children, is the twisted interpretation of American independence.
When I asked John Jay male students who they went to for emotional support, most of them said something about independence.
Freshman Andrew Turner said, “I deal with it myself.”
His response was almost mechanical, as if he had read off some script typed up by the
president of the He Man Women Haters Club (Little Rascals ).
This kind of social isolation attitude, Stein believes, has some serious repercussions. “I could see how in a big program (like college) they would totally fall through the cracks,” she said. And that is exactly what is happening.
Their plans for the future are uncertain, too.Justin Schiavone is in his last year of Graduate school and he still has“nothing solid yet” by way of a job and what he wants to do in the future.
This begs the question, what happens to men when they leave the comfort of college and go out into the world.
Siena Shundi is a therapist in Manhattan will hold therapy sessions for a group of men in their early 30s. It seems that the problem we college boys have will just become worse as we get older, like a festering wound that never gets cleaned.
In a society where men are pressured into assuming that dominant, bread winner role, things get confusing when they are no longer the sole breadwinner of a family.
“They have this confusion about what it means to be a man,” Shundi said. Shundi has also “seen more men get fired than women” in the past four years. Afterwards, she thought about this a little more and realized that she couldn’t recall seeing any women get fired; it was just men dropping out of the work force.
It is too early to look at workforce numbers to see any kind of decline of males in the workforce but if men are having a harder time then women in college, what will happen, if they make it, after graduation.
The inability of “men” to emotionally relieve themselves,coupled with dark prospects of work is leading to an early mid life crisis for men in their early 30s. According to Shundi, they are stuck in a kind of “arrested development” that seems to be ailing most of the men of New York City.
Katie Gentile, a faculty member in the counseling department and previous director of the Women’s Center, cautions against panicking over these numbers. Although she admits that our patriarchal society is getting shaken up, she believes that what our society is currently undergoing is merely an equalization of the sexes.
Shundi also prescribes to this belief. “As Americans become more comfortable with their sexuality there will be some kind of re balancing,” she said.
So how about it, brave college man? Do you feel comfortable enough to express your feelings without being afraid of someone accusing you of being unmanly?
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