Barnard College's trustees are expected to vote this coming week on the issue of transgender admissions.
Mills, Mount Holyoke, Scripps, Simmons, Bryn Mawr, and Smith have all opened their doors to transgender women in the past year.
I think certain issues just hit the zeitgeist at a certain point in time.
History is moving very quickly on this issue.
--Debora Spar, Barnard president
Spar has held five town hall meetings and a survey that yielded 900 responses. Spar says she personally read them all.
Barnard does have a transgender woman on the faculty. Jennifer Finney Boylan joined the faculty in 2014 as the Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence. She taught previously at Colby College in Maine.
Transgender issues have been accelerating in the culture, says Boylan. She points to several recent influential events: Actress Laverne Cox appearing on a Time magazine cover touting “The Transgender Tipping Point.” The Golden Globe-winning TV show “Transparent,” about a trans woman. And, more recently, Bruce Jenner’s transition. “These issues are changing the game,” says Boylan. “It might seem like it’s all happening at once, but why didn’t it happen sooner? I’m delighted that all of these colleges are trying to figure it out."
Not all the colleges have taken exactly the same approach. Smith will admit transgender women, but not transgender men. Mount Holyoke will admit both...as well as "gender fluid" people.
We acknowledge that gender identity is not reducible to the body.
--President Lynn Pasquerella, Mount Holyoke
Where will Barnard draw the line?
There’s no one right answer. It’s a complex issue, and it reflects the complexity of gender.
It really gets to the heart of who qualifies as a woman, and who qualifies as a man, Which makes it so relevant right now.
--Dru Levasseur, Lambda Legal
We really want to do the right thing. We just have to figure out what the right thing is.
--Spar
It would look really regressive and behind the times to say ‘no.’ We don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.
--Caleb LoShiavo, graduating senior, who identifies as gender fluid
LoShiavo believes Barnard should admit anyone who does not identify as male.
If you KNOW you’re a man, then a women’s college is not your place. Men have male privilege, that’s a fact. If people see you as a man, you’re going to be treated with more respect. Men don’t need to be at a women’s college to see themselves reflected in leadership. They can look at the entire history of our nation.
--LoShiavo
Mark King is a junior music major at Barnard and a transman. He didn't come out publicly until he was at Barnard.
In high school, there are just so many people who know you, so many people to get past. It was excellent to come to Barnard and introduce myself as I am.
Barnard appealed to me as a trans person because I knew that the environment here was much more accepting, and that people were completely open and happy to learn about other people’s experiences.
--King
King agrees that the first priority is to open the doors for transgender women.
But I think Barnard should admit all students for whom womanhood is or HAS BEEN part of their identity.
--King
Ava Kingsley has become the spokesperson for the "other side." She notes that Barnard is unique, in that it is also a part of Columbia...a co-ed college that does admit transgender students. Any Columbia student can take Barnard classes, eat in the Barnard dining halls or hang out at Barnard. They just can't officially be a Barnard student.
The co-ed aspect is important to me. Yet also, I feel strongly about having the all-women’s environment in the sense of the principle of the school and its mission. For me, as soon as you have students who have a penis apply to an all-women’s college, that takes away our unique identity as one. With three of four Columbia colleges able to enroll transgender students, I feel Barnard doesn’t have any obligation to take our exclusivity away, something we fought so hard to maintain.
--Kingsley, who says she welcomes transgender students in any aspect of campus life
Boylan says the "least vexing issue" for most people is whether transgender women have a place at Barnard.
You come to a place like this because gender is at the center of your life. Because the questions you need to answer to become yourself are questions that are best going to be answered at a college in which gender is at the center of the academic enterprise. The more you think about it, the more sense it makes.
Our humanity is measured by the way we treat the most vulnerable in our society. Even if — I would say especially if — their numbers are small.
--Boylan