Point-Counterpoint: Fordham's Gender Ratio

Recently, a New York Times article profiled a Fordham student who dated older professionals in the city because she claimed that she could not find enough qualified suitors among her peers. Given the fact that she attends Lincoln Center – the campus that Fordham the Musical said was set aside for "the gays" and girls – her difficultly finding a boyfriend at Fordham is understandable. 

At Rose Hill, however, the same gender imbalance does not apply. Officially, Rose Hill Society says that the campus is comprised of 55 percent women and 45 percent men, but statistics from this year's freshman class show that this gender gap is closing with a female-male ratio of 51 to 49. Odds are that student would probably not feel the same way if she lived up here.

In my own experience, the gender mix seems quite balanced up here at Rose Hill: the only time I notice more women in my class than men is when I am at Lincoln Center. Because I attended an all-boys Jesuit high school, I am aware of the dynamics of the single-sex learning environment, and frankly, claims that Fordham's gender imbalance is noticeable are unfounded.

In fact, speaking with male friends and roommates has revealed that many men on campus actually feel the opposite; to them, it seems that they outnumber women. In many of their activities, such as intramurals and going to the gym, fewer women participate than men.

It's what a person does that makes the difference in how they perceive their campus environment. The ways people socialize matters, and can influence who they meet. For instance, if you are a woman who can identify with the nightly activities of the some of the other women profiled in the Times article – staying in, having a dance party in your room and sitting around – then it is time to reevaluate how you associate with other people. Being a wallflower will seldom ever expand a person's social network, regardless of his or her gender.

Here at Fordham, blame also falls on the Office of Residential Life if women feel that that they are not meeting enough men. When the ratio of female resident assistants to male resident assistants far exceeds the male-female ratio in the general student population, one can expect that the types of "community building" programs of which ResLife is so fond will – consciously or not – be designed more for women. 

For those who believe that relatively few men on campus leads to a greater prevalence of a hookup culture, seldom can you have your cake and eat it too. As women close the gender gap in terms of education, one cannot expect that campus cultures will retain the same flavor that they once had. 

That said, however, the hook up culture that so many lament does not stem from gender imbalances on college campuses. This type of reasoning ignores the fact that this trend stems from behaviors that are learned at the high school level, and might also reflect cultural changes. Hook ups would occur regardless of whether or not there are more women than men at a school.

All this said, however, Fordham does have a fairly healthy balance of men and women. Those women who feel that they cannot find the right type of men to date should reevaluate where and for whom they are looking. Perhaps they are looking too hard for Mr. Perfect, and are ignoring men who do not meet their lofty standards.

"Out of that 40 percent, there are maybe 20 percent that we would consider, and out of those 20, 10 have girlfriends, so all the girls are fighting over that other 10 percent," one girl interviewed for the New York Times article noted. She was referring to the gender imbalance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Simply writing off half of the male population, however, is the wrong move no matter what the proportion of men in the student body might be.

Great men do exist; women just need to stop being overly picky.

Mike Burkart, FCRH '11, is an IPE and economics major from Greenfield, Wis. He can be reached at burkart@fordham.edu.