The Sacramento State Male Empowerment Collaborative Program has found a way to increase the number of men achieving degrees.

According to the Sac State website, the retention and graduation rates of males are significantly lower than females in universities across the country.

Retention coordinator for the Educational Opportunity Program Jerry L. Blake,  said the collaborative program was a result of the graduation initiative throughout the CSU system.

A report released in January from Sac State’s Office of Institutional Research, showed a gap between male and female graduation rates. Based off a six-year graduation term, 47.3 percent of males succeeded in graduating, while women had a 55.1 percent success rate.

Blake, who is also the advisor of the Male Empowerment Student Association, said the program focuses on a variety of factors men may face in college, which keep men from being as successful as women.

“Men express things most people would not think, like loneliness, inclusiveness or the idea of having to be dependent,” Blake said. “There is the pressure that you got to be a man.”

The initiative’s overall effort is to increase grade point average and graduation rates while decreasing the dropout rates among men.

The collaborative program is made up of different components such as U-Mentor, a software to help match students with mentors, a plan to increase the male GPA by 0.2 every semester and an event exposure component to give men recognition for their accomplishments.

Members decided the best way to encourage men to use the program’s resources was to start the student club, the Male Empowerment Student Association.

“We felt that really getting students involved was the key,” Blake said.

The student club meets biweekly and focuses on hosting and attending community outreach events for males.

Damariye Smith, student assistant coordinator for the club, said it is important for men to have a place they can go and talk about certain issues and connect with other men without being judged.

Smith said during his first years of college he had the mentality of having to be dependent. He said he went through relationship issues at a certain point in college and needed someone to talk with about the stress he was facing.

“This epidemic heavily affected my GPA, not to mention I was put on academic probation,” Smith said. “As men, it’s hard for us to say, ‘Hey, I need help.’”

Smith decided to join the Male Empowerment Student Association in order to help other men face challenges that may come up throughout their college experience.

Chris Kent, administrative support coordinator for the Women’s Resource Center, Pride Center and Multi-Cultural Center, said women are still generally underrepresented but men need resources too.

“There are plenty of people that say women get all of the resources and men don’t, and that is just sexist,” Kent said.

Kent said overall, the collaborative program and the student club are excellent because it reaches a different group of student identities.

Blake said the reason there is no men’s resource center on campus is because of the perpetuated belief that men are fine.

“Sometimes people think there is no need for those services because we are men and we should be tougher or stronger,” Blake said. “Sometimes men want flowers too.”