Advisor: Why do you think last semester’s academic performance was so poor?

Student: I have some deep-seeded insecurities relating to my performance of masculine stereotypes that really holds me back. I feel that asking questions in class shows weakness and partying excessively in the evenings demonstrates my strength. Duh!

Life in student services and advising would be much simpler if our day-to-day interactions played out like this but we all know it is never this easy. Commonly, students do not understand what root cause is affecting their performance. As an academic advisor who works primarily high-ability/honors students, my interactions with collegiate men are extremely varied. I have become increasingly intrigued by the complexity of masculinity and its effect on college men. With the support of a PACADA Professional Development Grant, I attended to the Conference on College Men in May 2013 to help explore this important topic. The conference provided me with several insights and I would like to share a few of those with you.

Specific Challenges to Supporting Collegiate Men

Traditionally aged (18-23 years old) undergraduate collegiate men (biological and social representations) represent a significant proportion of today’s student population and represent a group of students with complex needs and unique interests. How can we, as educators, support the needs of collegiate men? How do collegiate men’s needs differ from their female counterparts? What are the resources and best practices for effectively educating and supporting collegiate men? Here are several challenges specific to supporting collegiate men at Purdue:

• Conflicting Messages. Collegiate men struggle with understanding and coming to terms with their own gender identity. As a social construction, gender identity is extremely complex for college men as they receive multitude of conflicting messages, predominantly stem from the media, advertisements, family members, and friends.
• Intersection. One of the main challenges to understanding and navigating masculinity is that it is located at the intersection of race, class, and gender. In this context, this presents several challenges. First, masculinity is experienced differently for different students. Second, it can be extremely difficulty to “untangle” the intersection of identities as they are expressed by students. This is especially true at Purdue where we have high numbers of international students and students from diverse backgrounds.
• Performance and Hyper-masculinity. While collegiate men may “perform” gender in similar ways, their stories are unique and specific. The performance of gender is based on a variety of external social factors. One type of the performance of gender is hyper-masculinity. Hyper-masculinity is traditionally defined as an exaggerated adherence to traditional male gender role beliefs. At Purdue, this performance can be seen in a variety spaces such as predominantly male academic majors, fraternities, athletics, student organizations, and residence halls.

I believe that it is our role as educators to assist our male advisees to distinguish their own identity within social constructs. Additionally, the themes of power and privilege are imbedded within the construct of masculinity and it is critical for educators to be supportive of students as they attempt to navigate theses intersections.

Approaches and Practices

Within the collegiate context, there are multiple spaces on campus for practices for effective support of college men. These include but are not limited to classrooms, residence halls, student centers, fraternity houses, and spiritual centers. Based on several studies, collegiate men tend to be less academically engaged compared to their female counterparts. Therefore, as academic advisors, we need to be intentional with our interventions towards our male advisees. Here are a few suggestions.

• Coolness and the Classroom. Some collegiate men believe that “it isn’t cool to ask questions in class”. One way to address this is to encourage the student to use a professor’s office hours or to create a study group which would provide a more conducive space for learning. If the course has a teaching assistant, the student may feel more comfortable approaching that individual for assistance.
• Engaging Men in Dialogue. As advisors we must be comfortable with asking the difficult, yet important questions of our made advisees: Why are you pursing the field of study you have chosen? What pressure do you feel from your family? What types of pressure do you place on yourself? What does your immediate support structure look like? These questions, and others, can not only provide insight into the collegiate male experience but also develop the relationship between the advisor and advisee.
• Groups of Men and Safe Spaces. Another approach to engaging with collegiate men is developing focus groups. Some studies have showed that men’s focus groups are very effective because they provide a safe space for men to feel comfortable in voicing their concerns and issues. Focus groups can be centered on around an academic major which can not only provide specific insights into the struggles that the men are facing but also possible solutions.

Professional Organizations

If you are interested in professionally networking on this topic, there are several professional organizations that focus on these issues.

• The Association of College Personnel Administrators (ACPA) has a ‘Standing Committee on Men and Masculinities’. To learn more, please visit the following website: www2.myacpa.org/scm-home.
• The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) has the ‘Men and Masculinities Knowledge Community’. To learn more, please visit the following website: www.naspa.org/kc/mmkc.
• American Men’s Studies Association (AMSA). To learn more, please visit the following website: mensstudies.org.

These professional organizations host webinars, publish newsletters, host conferences, and manage professional list-serves. While all three professional organizations are committed to furthering the understanding of men and masculinity, the first two organizations (ACPA and NASPA) are directed towards supporting practitioners, while AMSA is more focused on furthering research and scholarship.

Current Literature and Book Resources

There have been numerous books and articles published on the complexities of collegiate men and new research will continue to emerge on the subject. The three main areas of research are understanding college men’s outcomes, deconstructing masculinity and identity, and the inter-sectionality of men’s issues. Over the multitude of books on the subject, there are a few that I want to draw attention to for both their depth on the subject and their recognition within the field.

• College Men and Masculinities: Theory, Research and Implications for Practice (edited by Shaun Harper and Frank Harris, 2010) is an excellent resource as it provides insight into male sub-cultures/activities. More so designed for scholars and practitioner-researchers, this book provides chapters on specific subgroups of men based on activity, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and health.
• Masculinities in Higher Education: Theoretical and Principal Considerations (edited by Jason Laker and Tracy Davis, 2011) is an edited book which provides a spectrum of identity analysis of collegiate men and practical advice for educators. This is an excellent resource of practitioners.
• Michael Kimmel’s Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2008). Kimmel’s Guyland is a robust compilation of over 400 interviews which provides multiple insights into the culture of and challenges of boys transitioning into adulthood. This is a very easy read with a good introduction into masculinity as a social construction.
• Linda Sax’s The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Poetential of Women and Men (2008). After an extensive study, Sax does an excellent job in her book of comparing collegiate men with collegiate women.
• Engaging College Men: Discovering What Works and Why (edited by Gar Kellom and Miles Groth, 2010) is an edited book that provides insight as to what is being done at 14 colleges and universities (and some high schools) to provide young men with guidance and support.

Conclusion

Collegiate men are complex individuals and I am very grateful PACADA provided me with the opportunity to attend the 2013 Conference on College Men. There is a host of scholarship and a multitude of educators committed to engaging collegiate men in new and innovative ways. I look forward to continuing the conversation of how, as a community of educators, we can more effectively support the needs of collegiate men.

Acknowledgements

Again, I would like to thank PACADA for its support in my attending the Conference on College Men. I would also like to thank Josh Dexter-Weins for his support on this article.

Michael Loeffelman is the assistant director for College of Liberal Arts Honors and can be reached via e-mail at mloeffe@purdue.edu.