The decision places Sweet Briar among the few remaining women's colleges in the United States that have a similar policy.
Sweet Briar College, a private liberal arts college for women located in Virginia, US, has just introduced a new admissions policy that will not allow transgender women to enroll on its campus this academic year, according to New York PostWith this decision, Sweet Briar College joined the few remaining women's colleges in the United States that have taken a similar position.
According to news channel, College officials said the policy reflects the will of its founder, Indiana Fletcher Williams, who died in 1900. College officials explained that Williams' will directs the institution to serve “girls and young women,” and they argue that those terms should be understood according to the meaning they had when the will was written.
In a letter to the college community, Sweet Briar President Mary Pope Hutson and the board chair announced that the new policy requires applicants to confirm that they were assigned female at birth and to permanently live and identify as women.
President Hutson has made clear that single-sex education is both a tradition and a unique cultural asset for the college. But the policy has angered students and faculty, who say it could discourage potential students — transgender or not — from applying to the college at a time when many women’s colleges are closing, consolidating, or going coed. Sweet Briar itself nearly closed in 2015.
Critics also cited the original interpretation of the will, which at one point explicitly excluded nonwhite students from the college, as deeply problematic. The college did not begin admitting black students until a federal judge granted approval after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The rationale for the transgender policy was “absurd,” said John Gregory Brown, chairman of the faculty senate and an English professor.