Wellesley College to Admit Transgender Students

Wellesley College is joining a growing list of women's colleges that accept transgender students

Wellesley College has joined a growing list of women's colleges that accept transgender women as students, as schools struggle to update their approach to women's education amid students' evolving gender identities.

President H. Kim Bottomly and trustees' chairwoman Laura Daignault Gates said in a letter Wednesday that "Wellesley will consider for admission any applicant who lives as a woman and consistently identifies as a woman."

The policy is expected to be in place for the next admission cycle for the Class of 2020. Transgender men are not eligible for admission to the private liberal arts college.

The policy approved by trustees Wednesday came after Bottomly formed a committee last fall to study educational, social, legal and medical considerations about gender identity.

Women's colleges nationwide have taken a range of positions on whom they will admit as students. Among the prestigious Seven Sisters group of women's schools, several have unclear policies toward transgender applicants, The Advocate reported last month, while others have recently clarified theirs.

Wellesley's new policy comes weeks after Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania said it would accept both transgender men and women, in a move its president said reflected an understanding that "gender is fluid and that traditional notions of gender identity and expression can be limiting."

"We recognize that students may express new gender identities while at Bryn Mawr and beyond," the Seven Sisters school's president Kim Cassidy told students and faculty in an email Feb. 9. "The Board’s decision affirms our commitment to all of our current and future students whom we will continue to welcome, support and proudly claim as our alumnae/i."

Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, explicitly revised its policy in September to accept applications from "any qualified student who is female or identifies as a woman," to include transgender women applicants. 

SImmons College in Boston and Mills College in California also now welcome transgender women.

But Smith College in Northampton came under fire last year for its own policy toward transgender students, after it rejected a transgender woman applicant over application documents they said did not reflect her identity as a woman.

"Like most women’s colleges, Smith expects that, to be eligible for review, a student’s application and supporting documentation (transcripts, recommendations, etc.) will reflect her identity as a woman," the college says on its website.

Critics say that requirement is onerous for transgender teens, many of whom may not be out to their families or who may not be able, due to legal and financial obstacles, to have their documentation changed to reflect their gender.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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