Wellesley College students voted Tuesday to open admission to transgender men and nonbinary applicants at a women’s liberal arts college in Massachusetts.
The non-binding vote garnered broad support not only from students, but also from hundreds of faculty, staff and alumni who signed an open letter in support of the policy change in the weeks leading up to the vote.
But university administrators said they would not change that policy. College president Paula A. Johnson said in a statement that Seven Sisters College only accepts “consistently female-identifying and living applicants, including cis, trans, and nonbinary students.” He said he would continue to admit it.
“We acknowledge the results of the non-binding student voting initiative. While we have no plans to review our mission as a women’s college or our admissions policy, we believe that all students will be encouraged to participate in an inclusive academic community where everyone feels they belong. I will continue to be involved in the important work of building the ,” she said in a statement.
Currently, Wellesley only accepts applications from cis-female, trans-female, and non-binary students who were “assigned female at birth and feel they belong in the female community.” Although we do not accept applications from students, we support students who come out as transgender or non-binary after enrollment. Mission and Gender Policy.
Over the past decade, some women’s colleges have updated their admissions policies to be more inclusive. Wellesley College announced in 2015 that it would admit transgender female applicants. This is after Mount Holyoke, another liberal arts college in the Seven Sisters cohort, became the first college to accept all transgender and nonbinary students, including transgender men.
Wellesley’s Student Initiative also urged schools to use gender-neutral language when referring to students in official communications, changing “woman” to “student” and “them/them” rather than “she/her.” I asked to use the pronoun of “.
The students hoped the vote would help bridge the understanding gap between school administrators and current student bodies, and hopefully influence board decisions.
Ailey Wood, a junior who helped create the initiative, said: wellesley news Voting will help strengthen the university’s inclusive environment and reflect the reality of gender-diverse students.
“Wellesley is not currently a women’s college. We interact with students of all genders every day. Our classmates are transgender and nonbinary, our favorite events are run by transgender and nonbinary students, The people you pass every day in the cafeteria or on the sidewalk are transgender, non-binary students, and even if the administration crafts policies that support this poll question, that fact won’t change,” Wood said.
Wood added that the university was set up to create a safe environment for the gender-based marginalized and that the university should welcome all transgender and non-binary students. rice field.
Across Twitter, Wellesley alumni have also shown support for the vote.
One alumnus, Isha Gupta, tweeted, “If dropping the ‘women’s college’ label means Wellesley is a more inclusive place, so be it.”
