Please join us in demanding that Smith live up to its reputation as a feminist college. How can we call Smith a womens' college if it is inaccessible to trans women?

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For press inquiries, comments, questions, and concerns, please email us: transwomenatsc@gmail.com

Smith College's current admissions policy is an anti-trans women exclusion policy in all but name.

Admissions requirements for all applicants:

All "Female" gender markers on school records -- transcripts and the midyear academic report

All "Female" gender markers on the 3 required letters of recommendation from teachers and guidance counselors

Why is this a problem?

Changing school records is notoriously difficult and often impossible

Most school districts are free to prohibit students from changing the gender markers on their records for any reason they like. Very few states have formulated guidelines for school districts to follow. A landmark study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that -- for trans students who felt comfortable enough to be “out” at school -- less than half have been able to change their documents. Although Lamba Legal suggests that it’s possible to use FERPA as a legal precedent to change one’s school records, they state that: “school districts are not always immediately cooperative, even when presented with compelling arguments. Often, we hear a school district say ‘We can’t do that’ or, in the same vein, ‘Our lawyer says we can’t do that.’ The school district may have an established policy of not making name or gender marker changes.”

Being an “out” trans woman in school is dangerous

In the same study, 31% of trans K-12 students report harassment from their teacher(s) because of their gender, 5% reported physical assault and 3% reported sexual assault from their teacher. “Trans K-12 students of color experienced higher rates of harassment and violence across the board. African American students experienced much higher rates of sexual assault by teachers (7%) relative to their peers of any race. 42% of multiracial students experienced teacher harassment, higher than any other racial category. In terms of gender, trans girls were doubly at risk for physical and sexual assault.”

What policy would Q&A recommend instead?

We'd model our new policy after the one at Mills College, a womens' college in California which has been basing admissions on identity rather than school records or sex assigned at birth for years with no reported issues. With input from trans women in the Pioneer Valley and the Five Colleges, trans students at Smith, and cis people in solidarity, Q&A drafted the following policy:

"Smith College has always been committed to promoting feminism and womens' education. Moving into the 2014-2015 academic year, we have realized that women’s empowerment should never be limited to just cisgender women. We realize that fighting transmisogyny — misogyny experienced by trans women and other transfeminine people specifically — is essential to furthering Smith’s mission as a women’s college. Due to current barriers to gender marker changes on application materials, we have updated our admissions criteria to disregard both sex assigned at birth and gender markers on documents. Instead, our admissions policy is based on gender identity.

Admission consideration is open to academically qualified students who identify as one or more of the following:

** a woman, regardless of sex assignment at birth

** non-binary and/or genderqueer, regardless of sex assignment at birth, in addition to feeling comfortable maintaining Smith as a woman-centered space.

Academic consideration is closed to students who identify as the following:

** a man, regardless of sex assignment at birth

Note that any student who transitions while at Smith will still be fully supported by the institution, regardless of gender identity."