Saturday, October 28, 2006

HU on Wall Street

It's been an extremely busy week, including a 13.5 hour day at work on Thursday because of an editors' meeting. Before I head back to work today, I wanted to share this interesting tidbit.

Those of you who claimed it was hard to find a man in Searcy just might have been correct. According to a census report on Page D2 of Thursday's Wall Street Journal, White County, Ark., has the lowest percentage of single men in the nation -- 17.8 percent. Here's the snippet that mentions HU and Searcy (I would link to it, but WSJ Online is subscriber-only):

"Come high-school graduation, White County, Ark., -- where only 17.8% of the men are unmarried and 17.6% of the women are unmarried -- sees a steady stream of young weddings, according to Mayor Belinda LaForce of Searcy, the county seat. At nearby Harding University, a Christian liberal arts institution, it is not uncommon for students to marry in the middle of their undergraduate careers. "We are a Southern community and a very faith-based community," says Ms. LaForce. Twenty-seven percent of the population has only a high-school degree, and just 6% have completed a bachelors degree, which is 21 percentage points lower than the national average."

Any thoughts? I, for one, can't believe HU's presence doesn't push the bachelors degree rate higher than that.

10 Comments:

At October 28, 2006 1:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's a thought: how many people do you know that wanted to settle down in Searcy after spending four years there?

 
At October 28, 2006 1:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

HU doesn't push the bachelor's rate higher, because the students don't have a bachelor's yet (that's why we went there :)). It does make the 27 percent high school bracket seem very low, unless there is a separate ranking for "some college".

 
At October 28, 2006 1:20 PM, Blogger James E. Miller said...

Fascinating. I didn't know HU was in the WSJ; thanks for bringing that to my attention.

I can believe HU's presence doesn't push the bachelors degree rate higher than 6 percent. The cost alone probably keeps many Searcians out of HU.

However, I am surprised that ASU Searcy (and ASU Bebee) doesn't encourage more Searcians to pursue bachelors degrees.

 
At October 28, 2006 6:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Harding students aren't considered to be residents of Searcy, so they are probably not counted.

 
At October 28, 2006 10:06 PM, Blogger Ryan said...

I actually meant the number of professors in the area should push that number a bit higher.

By the way, which Dave are you?

 
At October 29, 2006 8:07 AM, Blogger CE Butler said...

Interesting stuff.
I would think Searcy would be attractive for a young, single guy. There's lots of single girls over there at that church school.

 
At October 30, 2006 10:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just check Harding's web site, and HU has a student faculty ratio of 18:1. 1/18=.055555555, or about 5 1/2 percent. That means the campus could actually be hurting the county's numbers.

 
At October 30, 2006 10:27 AM, Blogger Renee Lewis said...

Ryan,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention and reminding me that I'm in that 17.6% and that most of that 17.8% of men are producing meth.

Renee

 
At October 30, 2006 10:37 AM, Blogger Ryan said...

Renee gets the Funniest Comment of the Month prize -- no contest.

 
At October 30, 2006 12:41 PM, Blogger Renee Lewis said...

Thanks man. I just realized I didn't follow AP Style in my comment. Forgive me.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home