Ed. Dept. Probes Smith College Over Trans Admissions
NEWS & RESEARCH
The U.S. Department of Education has launched a Title IX investigation into Smith College’s long-standing policy of admitting transgender women, a move that could jeopardize the single-sex status and federal funding of numerous women's colleges nationwide. The Trump administration argues that Title IX’s single-sex exemption is based strictly on biological sex rather than gender identity, asserting that the inclusion of "biological males" in women's intimate spaces violates federal law. Triggered by a complaint from the conservative group Defending Education, the investigation reflects a broader federal effort to roll back transgender rights.
SOURCES: Inside Higher Ed | The Hill| NBCBoston
ANALYSIS & OPINION
The Trump administration is conducting a coordinated national campaign to reshape higher education by targeting liberal arts institutions, feminist scholarship, and transgender inclusion. This effort, exemplified by the “civil rights investigation” into Smith College’s trans-inclusive admissions and the state-led dismantling of gender studies at New College of Florida, aims to realign the government with a specific conservative agenda. One trans student at Smith lamented: “We're just a scapegoat in this administration's aims to just outlaw anyone that's different.”
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
Urge passage of S. 1503, the Equality Act, that would protect a university that admits transgender students by prohibiting discrimination in education on the basis of sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Litigation:
File a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s reversal of the Obama/Biden view that Title IX was intended to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex, including transgender status.
Smith College should reaffirm its definition of women as including cisgender, transgender and non-binary people who self-identify as female.
Legislation: S.1503- Equality Act
