Transgender Students Working Toward Acceptance at Women's Colleges
(Originally for U.S. News University Directory)
As new generations of students enroll, colleges have had to make many adjustments to keep pace with changing attitudes. Protests and large-scale misunderstandings between students and faculty sometimes make the upheaval obvious, but issues that are invisible to many may be just as defining for these institutions. Growing awareness of transgender students has forced many university administrators to confront new problems, and perhaps no institutions have struggled to meet their students' needs as much as women's colleges.
Historically, the line between male and female was thought to be stark and simple, but awareness of people who define their genders outside of the traditional binary has made it clear that women's colleges may be excluding large groups of women. Barnard College in New York, a women's liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University, recently saw the issue rise to the forefront as students petitioned the school's board of trustees to formalize an admissions policy for transgender students, the Columbia Spectator reports.
Time for Decision
The college lacks a policy on admissions for these students, and some have said that the process discourages transgender women from applying. While students and faculty have been open to the idea of transgender students on campus, that view isn't always held by administrators, transgender students like Caleb LoSchiavo tell the Spectator.
Barnard President Debora Spar responded to students, saying that the school was ready to consider a formal admissions policy for transgender women, according to The New York Times.
"The time has come for us to examine how we, as a women's college, define 'women,' and how, consequently, we both admit and graduate students," Spar writes.
Currently, there are transgender masculine students at Barnard - those who were born with female characteristics but consider themselves male or gender neutral. There are, however, no transgender women, who were born with male characteristics but consider themselves female. Columbia University, which admits students of any gender, does have transgender women in attendance.
Ready for Change
Barnard College seems primed for a change of policy. Spar announced a series of town hall meetings that will take place in January and February to discuss a new admissions policy, following which the board of trustees could make changes, The New York Times reports.
Organizations such as Q, Barnard's queer student group, are already taking steps to make the campus a more welcoming place for transgender students. The organization has partnered with Barnard's Residential Life & Housing office to help resident assistants create more inclusive programs for transgender students, the Columbia Spectator reports. Q is also calling for Barnard to install gender-neutral bathroom signs, a step that Columbia University has already taken.
Legal Obstacles
While the culture may be ready for a shift, transgender students face other hurdles on the way to acceptance. Last year, Smith College, another school for women, rejected a transgender applicant because her identity as a transgender woman was not reflected on her financial aid application, USA Today reports. Calliope Wong, the applicant, is still listed as male on government documents. To change that, Wong says she would have to undergo surgery due to the laws of her home state and the state in which she was applying to college.
"In order to be legally recognized as 'female' on my birth certificate according to BOTH Massachusetts and Connecticut law, I have to undergo vaginoplasty (feminizing genital surgery)," Wong writes in a social media post, according to USA Today.
Wong says that most people aren't ready to make the decision to have gender reassignment surgery at the typical age of college admission. Things may be looking up for transgender students, however. The U.S. Department of Education states that public schools should respect transgender students' own sense of identity in making decisions about single-sex classes in elementary and secondary schools, according to a recent memo. Although the statement doesn't directly concern universities, it sets a clear precedent that the department regards uneven treatment of transgender students as discrimination.
As new generations of students enroll, colleges have had to make many adjustments to keep pace with changing attitudes. Protests and large-scale misunderstandings between students and faculty sometimes make the upheaval obvious, but issues that are invisible to many may be just as defining for these institutions. Growing awareness of transgender students has forced many university administrators to confront new problems, and perhaps no institutions have struggled to meet their students' needs as much as women's colleges.
Historically, the line between male and female was thought to be stark and simple, but awareness of people who define their genders outside of the traditional binary has made it clear that women's colleges may be excluding large groups of women. Barnard College in New York, a women's liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University, recently saw the issue rise to the forefront as students petitioned the school's board of trustees to formalize an admissions policy for transgender students, the Columbia Spectator reports.
Time for Decision
The college lacks a policy on admissions for these students, and some have said that the process discourages transgender women from applying. While students and faculty have been open to the idea of transgender students on campus, that view isn't always held by administrators, transgender students like Caleb LoSchiavo tell the Spectator.
Barnard President Debora Spar responded to students, saying that the school was ready to consider a formal admissions policy for transgender women, according to The New York Times.
"The time has come for us to examine how we, as a women's college, define 'women,' and how, consequently, we both admit and graduate students," Spar writes.
Currently, there are transgender masculine students at Barnard - those who were born with female characteristics but consider themselves male or gender neutral. There are, however, no transgender women, who were born with male characteristics but consider themselves female. Columbia University, which admits students of any gender, does have transgender women in attendance.
Ready for Change
Barnard College seems primed for a change of policy. Spar announced a series of town hall meetings that will take place in January and February to discuss a new admissions policy, following which the board of trustees could make changes, The New York Times reports.
Organizations such as Q, Barnard's queer student group, are already taking steps to make the campus a more welcoming place for transgender students. The organization has partnered with Barnard's Residential Life & Housing office to help resident assistants create more inclusive programs for transgender students, the Columbia Spectator reports. Q is also calling for Barnard to install gender-neutral bathroom signs, a step that Columbia University has already taken.
Legal Obstacles
While the culture may be ready for a shift, transgender students face other hurdles on the way to acceptance. Last year, Smith College, another school for women, rejected a transgender applicant because her identity as a transgender woman was not reflected on her financial aid application, USA Today reports. Calliope Wong, the applicant, is still listed as male on government documents. To change that, Wong says she would have to undergo surgery due to the laws of her home state and the state in which she was applying to college.
"In order to be legally recognized as 'female' on my birth certificate according to BOTH Massachusetts and Connecticut law, I have to undergo vaginoplasty (feminizing genital surgery)," Wong writes in a social media post, according to USA Today.
Wong says that most people aren't ready to make the decision to have gender reassignment surgery at the typical age of college admission. Things may be looking up for transgender students, however. The U.S. Department of Education states that public schools should respect transgender students' own sense of identity in making decisions about single-sex classes in elementary and secondary schools, according to a recent memo. Although the statement doesn't directly concern universities, it sets a clear precedent that the department regards uneven treatment of transgender students as discrimination.
