Smith College – Photo: Brian Logan via iStockphoto
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation into Smith College, accusing the all-women’s school in Northampton, Massachusetts, of violating federal laws against sex-based discrimination by allowing transgender women to enroll.
The investigation marks the first time the Trump administration has targeted school admissions policies as part of its broader crackdown on transgender rights. Previously, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights had focused primarily on transgender athletes competing on female sports teams and transgender restroom access.
The Education Department’s inquiry stems from a civil rights complaint filed by Defending Education, a nonprofit “parental rights” group, alleging that Smith College violated Title IX — the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education — by allowing transgender women to enroll and use female-designated restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities.
“[The Office for Civil Rights] enforces Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972…and its implementing regulation…which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,” Alexander Artz, team leader for the Office for Civil Rights, wrote in a response to Defending Education’s complaint. “As a recipient of federal financial assistance from the Department of Education, the College must comply with Title IX.”
Defending Education has filed several other complaints against universities and public school districts nationwide, accusing the institutions of race- or sex-based discrimination or of “indoctrinating” students on issues involving race — including diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives — sex, LGBTQ rights, and social justice.
Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said in a statement that “an all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males. Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness and compliance under federal law. The Trump administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.”
Smith, one of the nation’s largest women’s colleges with about 2,500 students, began admitting transgender students in 2015, two years after becoming embroiled in controversy when a transgender applicant was denied admission because her female gender identity did not match the male gender marker on her financial aid forms.
The college issued a statement acknowledging the investigation and stating that it remains “fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws.”
The investigation into Smith increases the likelihood that the Trump administration will target additional women’s colleges, particularly those that allow transgender women or nonbinary students to enroll. The move is also likely to discourage transgender applicants from applying to traditionally women’s colleges.
Of the 29 women’s colleges still in operation, most now accept transgender and nonbinary applicants — a shift decried by social conservatives and some radical feminists who argue that admitting people not assigned female at birth “erases” protected spaces for cisgender women.
But more liberal feminists have embraced transgender inclusion at such colleges. For example, Mills College became the first women’s college to adopt a formal admissions policy for transgender women in 2014. Three years later, the college reported that transgender women accounted for 8% of its student body.
“There are probably still some die-hard, radical feminists who don’t accept trans women, but most feminists and women’s college alums are very supportive,” Genny Beemyn, director of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Stonewall Center, told the New York Times. “That means there would be a tremendous amount of support for Smith if they decide to fight this.”
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