Opening the gates?

President Spar sent an email to Barnard students this afternoon explaining the Board of Trustees approach to adding a transgender policy to Barnard’s admissions for the future. A handful of all-women’s colleges have already implemented transgender policies in their own admissions. On campus, Barnard students have called for a change to address the non-existent admissions policy for transgender students; Spar notes that in the past the college has reviewed each case individually and only accepted students who identify as a woman. In response to students’ calls, the Board of Trustees began discussions in a meeting yesterday in regards to opening admissions to trans* applicants.

To include students in the discussion, President Spar also announced in the email that Barnard will be holding open forums next semester to collect the input from students in determining a transgender policy for admissions. For students who cannot attend the forums, the college has also created a confidential online forum for students to use. Here are the dates for the spring forums:

January 22, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m. – Event Oval, The Diana Center (for students and alumnae)
February 3, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m. – Ella Weed Room, 223 Milbank Hall (for faculty and staff)
February 10, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m. – Event Oval, The Diana Center (for faculty and staff)
February 16, 2015, 5:30-7:00 p.m. – Event Oval, The Diana Center (for students and alumnae)

President Spar’s Email:

Dear Members of the Barnard Community,

Over the past year, as you are likely aware, there has been an increased awareness of transgender issues across our society, and a growing recognition that, for many people, gender identity is more complicated and ambiguous than was once commonly believed to be the case. As a result, many organizations – from the U.S. military to the International Olympic Committee – are grappling with the implications of unraveling gender distinctions that in an earlier time were considered absolute. For women’s colleges, these questions are particularly profound. Because we are women’s colleges, after all, dedicated both philosophically and legally to educating only women. Federal law permits us to discriminate in admissions on the basis of sex, and we do. We do not accept men for admission. At Barnard, we have no formal policy addressing transgender applicants because, until recently, we hadn’t needed one. Instead, our long-time practice has been to review each application individually, and to admit only students who identify, in the traditional sense, as women.

With changes afoot all around, however, and a mission that requires us to “address issues of gender in all of their complexity and urgency,” the time has come for us to examine how we, as a women’s college, define “women,” and how, consequently, we both admit and graduate students. To this end, the Board of Trustees has engaged in a series of conversations over the past few months, seeking to learn as much as possible about this complex set of issues. At the same time, members of our senior staff have been exploring the implications of any potential policy change, ranging from legal issues to those affecting campus life.

Yesterday, the Board of Trustees met on campus, and the Committee on Campus Life, co-chaired by trustees Diana Vagelos ’55 and Frances Sadler ‘72, convened to discuss transgender policy, and to hear from various experts on the topic. The Committee reported its conversations to the full Board, and intends to meet for further discussions in March. As a next step, and to inform the Board’s deliberations, we are now planning a series of community-wide town halls in January and February, the details of which are below. We hope that many of you will be able to participate, and to add your voices to this very important conversation.

Meanwhile, because we know that not everyone in our community will be able to join our on-campus forums, we have created an online form as well. Please share your thoughts with me and members of the senior administration, to inform these meetings or simply to voice your feelings. All responses will be kept strictly confidential.

This is a complicated moment in Barnard’s history, but also a fascinating and important one. We look forward to engaging with you as we consider next steps, and to shaping Barnard’s future in a way that truly reflects its mission, its people, and its core values.

Sincerely,
Debora Spar

Community Forums will be held on:
January 22, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m. – Event Oval, The Diana Center (for students and alumnae)
February 3, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m. – Ella Weed Room, 223 Milbank Hall (for faculty and staff)
February 10, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m. – Event Oval, The Diana Center (for faculty and staff)
February 16, 2015, 5:30-7:00 p.m. – Event Oval, The Diana Center (for students and alumnae)