Smith College, a women’s liberal arts undergraduate and co-ed graduate institution in Northampton, Massachusetts, has been hit with a federal civil rights complaint that claims the college’s admissions and campus policies discriminate against women.
On June 20, Defending Education – a nonprofit that describes itself as “working to restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas” – filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against Smith College “for discrimination on the basis of sex in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance in violation of Title IX.”
In their complaint, Defending Education calls out several of Smith College’s campus policies that they claim violate Title IX. Under Smith’s current policies, people who self-identify as women – including nonbinary and transgender women – are eligible to apply to the college’s undergraduate programs. According to Defending Education, the acceptance of transgender women students limits opportunities “that would have otherwise gone to biological women.”
Furthermore, the nonprofit also disagrees with Smith College’s admission policies relating to transgender men, calling it “ironic” that the college admits “natal men who identify as women but does not admit natal women who identify as men.” Defending Education’s complaint also considers Smith’s all-gender restrooms and all-gender locker rooms to be Title IX violations that prevent female students from their entitled sex-segregated intimate spaces and athletic teams.
“Smith’s gender-identity-based Equal Opportunity Policy; its admissions policy, which accepts natal men in lieu of similarly situated female applicants; and its all-gender restroom and locker room policies, which divest female students of their privacy, safety, and equal educational opportunity, all appear to violate Title IX,” the complaint reads.
It continues, “Accordingly, we ask that the Department promptly investigate all the allegations in this complaint, act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief.”
Smith College has considered transgender women for admission to its undergraduate programs since 2015. As of the fall 2023 semester, the Department of Education’s own data reflects a 100 percent female undergraduate population at Smith College.