Inclusive admissions policies at women’s colleges

A recent article in The Boston Globe examined how women’s colleges are navigating the inclusion of transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) students amid growing national debate over diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in higher education. Mount Holyoke College was featured as one of several educational institutions that have reaffirmed their gender-inclusive policies despite the current political climate.
The College began admitting TGNC students in 2014. Mount Holyoke President Danielle R. Holley said in the article that inclusion remains central to the College’s mission as the leading gender-diverse women’s college. 
“DEI is not just in our DNA — it is specifically who we are,” Holley said. The current administration’s crusade against it “is absolutely an attack on groups in our country that have been historically marginalized, women and LGBTQ people being at the top of that list,” she said. “So for us, it’s very important that we stand on our values, because without our values, we don’t exist.”
Several other women’s colleges — such as Smith, Wellesley and Bryn Mawr — have taken similar positions concerning their admissions policies, although Mount Holyoke has the most inclusive policy among the Seven Siblings. At the same time, some educational institutions face new restrictions or funding concerns related to federal and state challenges to DEI initiatives.
Holley said in the article that she expects “an uptick” in applications to Mount Holyoke from prospective students “who want to study in a censorship-free space” instead of at schools such as Texas A&M University, which recently fired a professor for teaching “gender ideology.” 
Holley said, “Why should a woman go to college in Texas when she can come to a place like Mount Holyoke and not have what she learns restricted by the government?”

Read The Boston Globe’s story.
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