Jerry Blakes held Sacramento State’s first Male Empowerment Collaborative Men’s Conference to inform faculty, students and staff how it is to be a male in college and increase male graduation rates.

For the event they had guest speakers Dr. Frank Harris III, Associate Professor of Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University and Robert Jenkins III, Wealth Advisory Associate for Morgan Stanley.

Blakes said that what separates the Male Empowerment Collaborative from other organizations on campus is the lack of male resource center.

“We don’t really have that centralized location, we want to create access like the other departments on how we can connect,” Blake said.

Blake continued to say how being involved and mentoring fellow students is important on campus because of the decreasing number of male students enrolled at Sac State.

Harris said during his lecture that the graduation rate for men has decreased 10 percent between 2004 and 2006 and only 36 percent of all men at Sac State between 2010 and 2012 are graduating.

“The ways in which young boys socialize and behave and address themselves as men are really not in line with the values that are necessary in success in higher education,” said Harris.

Harris explained that college men follow and try to portray themselves in four categories; “tough guy,” “Playboy,” “Homophobic” and “the winner.”

According to Harris, some of the characteristics of men who fall into these categories are wanting to hook up with women, not being a nerd or a square, not asking for help, not expressing emotions, not being vulnerable and having a lot of material items.

“Following these male stereotypes can lead to depression, brutality, sexism, binge drinking and are more often to not seek help when needed,” said Harris.

Some ways to avoid these gender specific roles and have healthy concepts of masculinity are to be an involved student and be a leader, support and respecting others, processing emotions and to succeed academically.

Jenkins focused on providing information for financial planing for college males, as well as how to become financially successful after they graduate.

“Those with a financial plan feel more confident about reaching their financial goal relative to those without a plan,” said Jenkins.

Jenkins said those who discover paths and adjust to achieve goals will be able to succeed financially and be able to retire comfortably in the future.