Spelman College in Atlanta Will Admit Transgender Students in 2018

Spelman College, the liberal arts educational institution for women in Atlanta, announced that for the class that will enter college in the fall of 2018 it “will consider for admission women students including students who consistently live and self-identify as women, regardless of their gender assignment at birth.” Most of the nation’s leading women’s colleges made similar decisions two or three years ago.

In outlining the college’s new policy, Mary S. Campbell, president of Spelman College, stated that “Spelman does not admit male students, including students who self-identify and live consistently as men, regardless of gender assignment at birth.” She added that “if a woman is admitted and transitions to male while a student at Spelman, the College will permit that student to continue to matriculate at and graduate from Spelman.”

In her letter to the campus community announcing the change in its admissions policy, President Campbell stated that “in adopting this admissions policy, Spelman continues its fervent belief in the power of the Spelman Sisterhood. Students who choose Spelman come to our campus prepared to participate in a women’s college that is academically and intellectually rigorous, and affirms its core mission as the education and development of high-achieving Black women.”