Men-of-Color Retention Initiatives: Three Recommendations for Improving Student Outcomes

In fall 2021, the Wall Street Journal published an article about the gradual disappearance of men from four-year colleges and universities (Belkin, 2021). This article reignited a national discussion about the decline in enrollment, retention, and graduation for men and how colleges should consider implementing a gendered affirmative action process to ensure gender equity in admissions offices to support young men and their college goals. This Wall Street Journal article received immediate response from researchers, pundits, and various stakeholders that the gender gap was, in fact, an old problem for colleges and universities. The gender gap in higher education is especially salient for men of color—that is, Black, Latino/x, Indigenous, Asian American, and Pacific Islander men—who for decades have been “vanishing” from higher education: only one in five men of color over the age of 24 holds a bachelor’s degree (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019; Sáenz & Ponjuan, 2009).