This last academic year, Drake University, a mid-sized university, had its smallest freshman class since before 2003. In 2015, there were 803 entering first-year students, with that number declining relatively steadily since then. Although the number of new first-year students dropped to 589 in 2024, Drake’s student body is more racially diverse than ever before, with women making up 61% of the class as they have for the last decade.
Sounds like female empowerment at Drake! Feminists who fought for women’s education, like Malala Yousafzai or Mary Jane Patterson, the first Black woman to graduate from college in 1862, would be so proud.
So, what’s the issue?…