Ashley McDowell, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter
Berry is about to see a 66 percent increase in the number of males enrolling compared to last year, a large portion of which is attributed to the addition of a football team.
Research has indicated that it is not just the number of males joining the football team that is increasing male enrollment, but that more male students care about whether there is football at a college when they are applying, Vice President of Student Affairs Debbie Heida said.
“Our numbers for this year would indicate that our research was right on the money in saying that it isn’t just the football team, you’ve become more attractive to other male students as well,” Heida said.
Methus Weldon, an incoming freshman football player from Washington, said football did have a big impact on his decision to come to Berry.
“Whatever school I went to, I wanted to play football,” Weldon said, “so the fact that I could come here and be a part of the first team in the school’s history was special.”
Heida explained why Berry was able to release admissions numbers so soon this year.
“Typically our male numbers come in a little bit later, so it may be that thanks to football and the recruiting for football our male numbers are coming in sooner than they might have otherwise,” Heida said.
The increase in male numbers has also affected the living conditions at Berry. Residence halls that have always been allotted to females are transforming into co-ed dorms with a men’s floor in Thomas Berry and a men’s floor in Morton-Lemley next year. Heida said they are doing this due to the increase in male numbers as the college has gotten larger.
“We do not want to return to an all-male Dana,” Heida said. “We think there have been some real advantages to having women in Dana as well in terms of the culture of the residence hall. We’ve spread out where we have men living for next year and we’ll have to look at that in the future of where do we put this number of male students versus the places that we haven’t before.”
Heida said they have had a concern for years about the low percentage of males at Berry because it affects campus culture. She said that students at a co-ed institution want a co-ed environment and with such a low percentage of males the social climate is different.
“I think overall it will be a healthier campus climate with a closer balance of male and female,” Heida said.