https://apnews.com/article/sweet-briar-college-transgender-students-
694398c5cf910212924e9bb71b38787e

Sweet Briar College in Virginia has instituted an admissions policy that
bars transgender women next school year, making the school an outlier
among the nation�s diminishing number of women�s colleges.

The private women�s liberal arts school said the policy stems from the
legally binding will of its founder, Indiana Fletcher Williams, who died
in 1900. Sweet Briar�s leadership said the document requires it to �be a
place of �girls and young women.��

The phrase �must be interpreted as it was understood at the time the Will
was written,� Sweet Briar�s president and board chair wrote in a letter
earlier this month to the college community.

The new policy requires an applicant to �confirm that her sex assigned at
birth is female, and that she consistently lives and identifies as a
woman.�

�Sweet Briar College believes that single-sex education is not only our
tradition, but also a unique cultural and social resource,� President Mary
Pope Hutson said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The new guidelines are facing criticism from some students and most
faculty. They warn the politically fraught policy could repel potential
students � not just transgender women � when women�s colleges have been
closing, going co-ed or merging with other schools. Sweet Briar nearly
shuttered in 2015.

Critics also question the board�s originalist interpretation of a will
that explicitly excluded non-white students.

Williams� will said the school was to be a place �for the education of
white girls and young women.� The college had to get permission from a
federal judge to accept Black students after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

John Gregory Brown, an English professor and faculty senate chair, said
the reasoning for the transgender policy is �absurd.�

�Williams also wouldn�t have entertained the notion that somebody who was
disabled would be a potential student,� Brown added.

On Monday night, the faculty voted 48 to 4, with one abstention, to call
on the board to rescind the policy, Brown said.

Sweet Briar has about 460 students �- known as Vixens � and was
established in 1901 on Williams� estate, a former plantation in the
foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On Aug. 10, the Sweet Briar College Student Government Association stated
the policy was �alienating, unnecessary, and it reflects the rise of
transphobia in our country.�

Association President Isabella Paul, a senior who identifies as nonbinary,
told the AP that at least 10% of students use different pronouns and
wouldn�t fit in the policy�s description of women.

�And there are allies here who may identify as women but have friends and
lovers and family members who are nonbinary, genderqueer and transgender,�
Paul said. �So this is also affecting their pride in their institution.�

It�s unclear how the policy will affect current students. When asked,
Sweet Briar�s president said the school tries �to ensure that all of our
students feel welcome on campus.�

Hutson acknowledged that a board member has resigned over the policy and
that alumnae on both sides �care deeply about the future of our college.�

�Many want Sweet Briar to remain a place where women can thrive, and they
believe that a broader policy is a slippery slope toward co-education,�
Hutson said. �They strongly support this policy.�

Women�s colleges in the U.S. began to admit transgender women about 10
years ago, including Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and Spelman
College, a historically Black school in Atlanta.

�What it means to be a woman isn�t static,� Mount Holyoke�s then-President
Lynn Pasquerella told the AP in 2014. �Early feminists argued that
reducing women to their biological functions was a foundation of women�s
oppression.�

Currently, 23 historically women�s colleges have policies that admit at
least some trans students, said Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall
Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Beemyn, who tracks such
policies, said three historically women�s colleges bar most trans women,
including Sweet Briar.

Admissions policies at private undergraduate colleges are exempt from
Title IX, the 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in education. So Sweet
Briar would not be affected by the Biden administration�s new rules under
Title IX, which restrict discrimination based on gender identity.

Most Republican state attorneys general are challenging those rules in
court. And judges have halted enforcement in 26 states, including
Virginia, while the cases proceed.

But schools, including Sweet Briar, would not be shielded from any private
lawsuits filed by current students, said Nicholas Hite, a senior attorney
with LGBTQ+ rights group Lambda Legal.

Hite said Sweet Briar�s policy could be problematic because it explicitly
attempts to define for current students what it means to �live and
identify as a woman.�

�That�s something that every cis and trans woman should be able to decide
for herself,� Hite said.

Sweet Briar lacked a stated transgender admissions policy until this year,
according to the letter from school leadership. The college was previously
handling applications case by case.

But then the Common Application, a nonprofit that helps students apply to
schools on one standardized form, added more options for a person�s legal
sex, �X� or �another legal sex.�

Sweet Briar�s leadership said the additional options created confusion and
challenges for applicants and school staff.

Emma Steele, a Common Application spokesperson, said in a statement that
the changes �were all made to better reflect the more than one million
students who use Common App each year.�

Sweet Briar almost ceased being a school in 2015. Its then-leadership
announced its closure and cited financial challenges, declining enrollment
and other problems.

The school was saved after multiple lawsuits, prolonged negotiations and
the raising of millions of dollars by its fiercely determined alumnae.

Sweet Briar is one of 30 schools listed as members of the Women�s College
Coalition. The U.S. had more than 200 women�s colleges in the 1960s.

The faculty senate president said the new policy will likely shrink the
pool of already precious applicants.

�It really excludes any student who would be offended by those positions
.... who doesn�t want to be in a place where discrimination is codified in
this way,� Brown said. �I think it�s a financially disastrous decision for
the college.�

--
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