AMHERST COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — Concerns from students at Sweet Briar College are being vocalized over a change in the college’s admissions policy.
On-campus clubs, such as the Student Government Association, took to Instagram to express their concerns with the policy, saying it’s transphobic.
On its website, the college said “An applicant is qualified for admission if she confirms that her sex assigned at birth is female and that she consistently lives and identifies as a woman.”
A student, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed their distress over this policy.
“We are now required to present as female and that is a bit of a challenge for students who may be non-binary, who may be transmale, who do have female on their birth certificate but don’t identify as a woman,” the student said.
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This student said they were disappointed by the decision.
It was pretty disheartening. A lot of us tried to just understand where the decision came from because we didn’t have any communication about the policy changing prior to that,” they said.
The biggest issue, this student said, is the lack of communication.
“I know that the student government released a statement saying that they urge dialogue to go on between the administration and students. But, the communication students received was an email that went out basically justifying the decision,” they said.
This student said there are many students who identify as non-binary, transmale, gender non-conforming, and gender-queer. The student said as far as they know, this policy would not affect current students.
“Due to this new policy requiring assigned female at birth, it would be also excluding those who identify and present themselves as women and who may have gone through the changes but are still possibly denied entry,” they said.
This student hopes the administration will hear their concerns in the near future.
“I hope to have open dialogue with administration. I think it is really important that there is student input when it comes to decisions that affect students and it just seems like we weren’t really taken into account,” they said.
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Sweet Briar sent ABC13 a statement that said:
“As Sweet Briar College approached the beginning of the new 2024-2025 academic year, it needed to confirm its admission policy to meet the new requirements of the Common Application for admission for students entering college in the fall of 2025. That application now lists multiple gender options. The confusion this creates for applicants seeking admission to a women’s college like Sweet Briar, necessitated a review of the College’s admission policy by the Board and administration of the College. Sweet Briar College affirmed that it will continue its 123-year commitment to only admit women. Since political and other influences now call the meaning of the term “woman” into question, the College affirms that it understands the term in its historic and traditional way consistent with the intentions of our founder.”
John Fishwick, a former U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, spoke to the legality of this decision.
“If a lawsuit is brought because you have violated Title IX or some law, what the Department of Education can say is ‘You violated the law and therefore we are going to pull your federal funding,'” Fishwick said.
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But, the college’s long history could help them if someone files suit.
“The other thing that Sweet Briar has going for it is that they are an all-women’s college. I think that gives them, probably, more legal protections than, say, a private school that has both men and women going to it,” Fishwick said.
With Title IX, Fishwick said the Biden Administration would say transgender individuals are protected and you can’t discriminate against them.
“It looks like whether they are constitutional or not is likely to end up at the United States Supreme Court,” Fishwick said.
He said ultimately the United States Supreme Court will have to decide if the same rights that a transgender individual has in the workplace extends to colleges and universities under Title IX.