Simmons College, founded in 1899 in Boston, Massachusetts, enrolls more than 4,600 women undergraduate students. The women’s college also has nearly 3,000 students in its coeducational graduate programs.
Now following in the footsteps of Mills College in Oakland, California, and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, Simmons College has formalized a new policy that redefines who is eligible for admission. According to the new policy, all students who “were assigned female at birth and/or who self-identify as women are eligible to apply for admission.” Any student who is admitted to the college and completes the degree requirement is eligible for a Simmons College degree. Thus, students who enter Simmons College as women, but who later identify as men, will be allowed to remain enrolled to complete their degrees.
Simmons College states that “we do not require government issued documentation for purposes of identifying an applicant’s gender identity.”
In a statement the college said that “Simmons is committed to our historic mission as a women’s college. We also recognize that traditional notions of gender are evolving, and increasingly individuals do not conform to the gender binary. As an institution that values inclusion, Simmons College acknowledges this reality and believes that this policy is aligned with our values. We are a campus community that supports a full range of gender identity and expression.”