The college permits anyone who self-identifies as a woman to apply for admission.
By Catholics for Catholics
The Trump administration started a probe on Monday into a historic all-women’s college that admits gender-confused males.
In a letter, the Department of Education confirmed that it had started an investigation into whether Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was transgressing Title IX. The probe comes almost one year after watchdog organization Defending Education filed a civil rights complaint over its transgender policies, according to a story by The Daily Wire.
“The complaint alleges that the College, one of the largest women’s colleges in the United States, discriminates against women on the basis of sex by admitting males who identify as women (‘self-identified transgender women’) and by permitting male students to use intimate facilities designated for women,” the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights wrote in a letter on Monday to Defending Education. “[The Office of Civil Rights] is opening the complaint for investigation.”
The complaint alleges that the school breaks federal policy by permitting males who identify as females to take the place of females in admissions. Smith College only admitted about 22% of applicants for the 2024-2025 school year.
The policies concede that the historically all-women’s college permits men to get in the educational institution if they identify as transgender. The decision to admit males was first made in 2015 after Smith conducted a year-long study group on the topic.
“People who identify as women — cis, trans, and nonbinary women — are eligible to apply to Smith,” the college explains. “Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. The applicant’s affirmation of identity is sufficient.”
Sarah Parshall Perry, the Defending Education Vice President said she looked forward to the department’s investigation.
“Smith College has a longstanding reputation as a women’s college of exclusive excellence. But that hasn’t prevented it from falling victim to the fiction of ‘transgender’ womanhood,” she said. “Admitting men who feel like women means that the institution — formerly one of the nation’s prestigious ‘Seven Sisters’ all-women’s colleges — is no longer for women only.”
The office will conclude whether there are any merits to Defending Education’s complaint, which was first reported on by The Daily Wire in June 2025.
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