Washington Post education writer Daniel de Vise does a great job detailing the admissions bias against women. There’s so much to this story that de Vise doesn’t have space to explore. While researching my book I visited American University (60% female) and talked to both university officials and students. AU was facing the typical housing dilemma: students want co-ed housing, but how does that happen with lopsided gender numbers? Either some women get frozen out or the dorms are unevenly stacked, which leads to overcrowded bathrooms for females.

And my online conversations with male students revealed the dating dilemma that surfaces in any 60/40 college — guys who could barely get a date in high school suddenly imagine themselves as players, which makes life miserable for the women.

Best of all is their graphic, showing the admissions rates at nearby colleges and universities. Most interesting, of course, is William & Mary, a public college that in the past has conceded they grant admissions preferences to men. How do they get away with it? In Virginia, the elite W&M can get away with things that James Madison University would never dare try — the state legislators would jump all over them if local female applicants were discriminated against. W&M, on the other hand, benefits from a national reputation prized by the legislators.

(photo courtesy of the Washington Post)

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, referring to what I’ve been writing about — along with parallel reporting by U.S. News & World Report — launches an investigation into colleges discriminating against women by favoring men in the admissions process. It amounts to affirmative action for men. Here’s the Chronicle’s version. For an idea of how this bias plays out behind closed doors at college admissions offices, see this New York Times op-ed.

In the long run, the investigation could force the U.S. Department of Education to begin research into the real issue — why boys are struggling in K-12 grades and either not graduating from high school or arriving in their senior year lacking both the aspirations to go to college and the skills required to survive in college. Currently, the United States lags far behind countries such as Australia and England in pursuing this research.

Two thoughts about the probe: Is it really illegal for a private college to discriminate against women in the admissions process? That’s never been clear to me. I’m not sure it is, but the mere exposure of this will infuriate women, especially high school seniors who will learn about the  longer admissions odds they face. As the father of two daughters I can tell you their reaction: They won’t be happy.

Also, if it’s not illegal, is the pro-male admissions bias good policy? That’s a very tricky question. Colleges don’t favor men to help struggling boys. They do it to keep their gender ratios from pushing past the dreaded 60% threshold where men become abusive in their personal relationships. Never heard of the “operational sex ratio”? Neither had I until I started researching this issue.  See this piece I wrote about James Madison University.

Regardless of their motives, however, the admissions bias does end up helping struggling boys. Is that good or bad policy? Tom Mortenson argues that colleges should be forced to maintain gender-neutral admissions policies. That will expose the struggle boys are having in the K-12 years and force schools to take action. True, but peeling back what appears to be a massive affirmative action for boys will only hurt men more at a time when it is increasingly important for them to earn four-year degrees from respectable colleges.

Any way you look at it, this is explosive stuff, and although the probe is designed to prevent discrimination against women this is not an investigation feminists will welcome. Any attention paid to the lopsided gender gaps in college — close to 58 percent of graduates of four-year colleges are women — drains credibility from their portrayal of women as a class in need of special help in the education system. See this piece I wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education.