The Trump administration has opened a federal civil rights investigation into Smith College, one of the country’s few remaining all-women’s institutions.
According to a Monday press release from the Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights is examining whether the college violated Title IX.
At issue is the Massachusetts school’s policy of admitting men who identify as “transgender” women and granting them access to female-only spaces.
Those spaces include dormitories, bathrooms, locker rooms, and even the school’s athletic teams.
Title IX allows for single-sex colleges, but only on the basis of biological sex, not gender identity.
That distinction is at the heart of the investigation.
The Trump administration has made protecting women’s spaces a clear priority since day one, and has gone after states and institutions that have lost their way.
Smith College’s own policies clash directly with the reason for its existence.
On its website, one of the school’s frequently asked questions states, “Who is eligible to apply to Smith?”
The answer reads, “Smith is a women’s college and considers for admission any applicants who self-identify as women; cis, trans, and nonbinary women are eligible to apply to Smith.”
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey noted in the release that “an all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males.”
“Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law,” Richey added.
She concluded, “The Trump Administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.”
A representative for Smith College did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by the Associated Press.
The federal probe stems from a complaint filed against Smith College last year by the legal group Defending Education.
The group said in the complaint, “The college’s admission policy appears to violate Title IX” as well as “various Presidential Executive Orders on policies related to sex discrimination in federally funded programs.”
“Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,” Defending Education went on to say.
It added, “At the same time, Title IX also protects single-sex spaces: for example, female students are entitled to sex-segregated intimate spaces, single-sex membership in sororities, single-sex athletic teams, and single-sex admissions where an institution has held itself out to be single-sex and provides substantially equivalent educational opportunities.”
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