But today some observers say undergraduate males are becoming an endangered species. It's clear why Frank Nash, the admissions director at Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, N.J., might feel that way. Only about 30 percent of the college's 1,800 students are men. Mr. Nash's mission is to narrow that gender gap. Bloomfield's guy gap is bigger than that at most schools.
Little research exists about the impact of a gender balance on learning.
Yet since the gender-segregated walls of the Ivy League came down in the 1960s, the idea has gained status as a key component of a diverse, intellectually vibrant campus. Beyond academics, it is an expected part of campus social life. For much of the past three decades, the focus has been on bringing more women onto campus. But now, as the female majority grows at colleges across the United States, administrators are being forced to confront the gender equation on campus in a new way. Debate over the gender gap's severity in recent years has targeted its size and scope.