Ryan ChartrandTake a look around and pay special attention to who you see. Whether you see more men or more women, chances are it is the direct result of your major.
The days of male-dominated universities are gone; in fact, women now make up 58 percent of undergrads nationwide, according the U.S. Education Department. At Cal Poly, 56.5 percent of the undergraduate student population is male, largely the result of the number of males in the College of Engineering, the largest college on campus.
Despite the number of males and females on campus being split pretty evenly, the percentage of men and women in each class can differ greatly depending on the major. It can be debated whether the presence of a certain gender in the classroom has advantages, disadvantages, or no effect at all.
The largest gender divide at Cal Poly is in the College of Engineering, where 86 percent of the 4,589 students are male. Mechanical engineering Professor Dr. Jim LoCascio said the number of males in the major has really made no difference.
“I think everybody should be treated the same,” he said. “When I look back on my career it’s comical that both these groups think the other group is getting the unfair advantage.”
In his 20-year teaching career, LoCascio has had experience teaching classes dominated by both females and males, as well as classes that were evenly split, throughout all of which he never felt he needed to change his personal teaching style or noticed the classroom running any differently.
Architectural Engineer senior Jenny Jirschefske is among 34.6 percent of the females in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, which has the fourth largest gender divide at Cal Poly, and likes it that way.
“In classes with all guys it doesn’t matter who’s cool and who’s not. It’s less competitive. The guys are always willing to help you. I think it has perks being one of the only girls,” Jirschefske said. “I’m in one class right now where it is almost all girls, which is really rare. You can totally tell the cattiness. I’m not used to the cattiness that comes along with girls being in your classes.”
The College of Liberal Arts has 70.6 percent female students, the third largest gender divide on campus. Psychology and child development senior Nick San Juan, one of the 29.4 percent of males in the college, said being in the minority has advantages and disadvantages.
“It’s definitely a little bit different. In high school there are both guys and girls, and now I’m mostly surrounded by girls. I notice it, it’s definitely there, but it’s not that big of a deal to me,” San Juan said.
One of the disadvantages of being a male in a female dominated major, San Juan said, is that some of the lectures are geared towards females since there are more of them in the classes.
“As a guy surrounded by 30 girls in every class, it’s a pretty cool deal. Other than that, you just go to classes take the tests like everyone else,” he said.
The College of Education, 74.2 percent females, and the College of Agriculture, 58.2 percent females, and the College of Science and Mathematics, 55 percent female, are the three other colleges on campus dominated by women. The Orfalea College of Business, 57.1 percent male, is the only other male dominated college at Cal Poly.