HEY, U. GO, GIRLS! By CARL CAMPANILE
The Big Man on Campus is rapidly becoming the Only Man on Campus.
Young women have outsmarted men by quietly and successfully turning Big Apple colleges into feminine domains.
In the City University of New York, 62 percent of the students at its 17 undergraduate campuses are women. Only 38 percent are men.
The gender disparity is staggering at some CUNY campuses.
* At Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, 78 percent of the students are women. Only 22 percent are men.
* At Hostos Community College in The Bronx, 76 percent of the students are women, 24 percent men.
* At Lehman College, also in The Bronx, 72 percent are women, 28 percent are men.
* At York College in Jamaica, Queens, 71 percent are women, just 29 percent men.
Shemik Lavel, a 19-year-old male at Medgar Evers, said the gender gap exists because women are more motivated and conscientious students.
"Girls are more 'goodie, goodie.' They do their homework. They're more studious," Lavel said. "We exercise our muscle. They exercise their brains more."
While the CUNY figures are shocking, it's part of a national trend that shows 56 percent of all undergraduate college students are female, and just 44 percent are male, according to the National Center on Education Statistics.
The female revolution also has swept through Gotham's more pricey and selective private colleges. At both New York University and Fordham University, about 60 percent of the student body is female, while 40 percent are male.
CUNY spokesman Jay Hersheson said the numbers paint a success story for women, and stressed that the university's campuses offer female-oriented programs such as nursing.
"Thirty percent of our students are parents. Female students often attend college and work near their home. It allows them to juggle their responsibilities," he said.
But it's also a tale of woe for men.
Part of the problem is that CUNY draws two-thirds of its students from the city public-school system, and in many local schools, more men flunk and dropout than graduate.
In the 2001 school year, 56 percent of women graduated high school, but only 46 percent of men did, city school officials reported.
"It's a problem all over the city, but especially in The Bronx. Minority males tend to drop out of school more than females," said Lehman College President Ricardo Fernandez.
As they become teenagers, more males get suspended and cut school. And more of them are apt to join gangs, take drugs and end in up jail or get killed.
"It reflects the social condition of males who are raised in impoverished surroundings. A lot of men have done themselves in by getting involved in 'street culture,' " said Saul Cohen, a member of the Board of Regents, and a former president of Queens College.