Hey there. It's Stephen Dubner. We have been replaying our 2022 series called

Freckonomics Radio goes back to school, which is about the economics of higher education. I hope you

have enjoyed it so far. This is the final episode of that series. It's called

What is the future of college and does it have room for men?

We have updated the original episode as necessary.

One thing that didn't need updating is the trend of men enrolling in college at significantly

lower rates than women.

In fact, that gap has increased since we first published this series.

In this episode, you will hear some explanations, some ramifications, and some possible solutions.

As always, thanks for listening.

In 2013, the Lewis College of Business in Detroit shut down and put itself up for sale.

The asking price was $3.2 million.

$3.2 million is not very much for a whole college. That's what the basketball coach at the nearby University of Michigan makes in one year, but apparently that's all the Lewis College of Business was worth.

It was a small private school, the first and only historically black college or university in Michigan.

HBCUs have been getting more attention lately, but again, this was 2013.

The funding wasn't as supportive for HBCUs as it's been in the last few years and this was a smaller school so it

received a smaller piece of the pie. That is Dwayne Edwards. He and his family

recently moved to Detroit.

As we'll hear today, he took a personal interest in the history of the Lewis College of Business.

He tells us it was founded in 1928 in Indianapolis by Violet Lewis. She was one of three

black women to found an HBCU. One of three, right? I didn't know about her. I

I fell in love with her and her story.

...