Education Department opens probe into Smith College for admitting trans women
The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation Monday into Smith College, an all-female institution in Massachusetts, for admitting transgender women.
The investigation, conducted by the department’s Office of Civil Rights, will look at whether the university violated the 1972 Title IX law, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education.
The move is the latest move by the Trump administration, whose rhetoric frequently includes attacks on transgender people, to limit transgender rights in the United States. The administration has said Title IX prevents transgender women from participating in women’s sports, has sued several states and launched investigations into schools for failing to comply.
Smith College, a private liberal arts school founded in 1871, has accepted transgender women since 2015, along with many other elite women’s colleges.
The school’s admissions policies attracted attention and sparked campus activism in 2013 when a transgender high school senior was denied admission because her gender identity did not match that on her financial aid forms.
The website states that “all applicants who identify as women; cis, trans and gender non-binary women” can now apply to the school. Advocates have supported the change for years, saying women’s colleges were established to educate those excluded because of their gender.
The number of women’s colleges in the U.S. has dropped from 200 to 30 as of fall 2023, according to the Women’s College Coalition.
A university spokesman did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Title IX includes an exception allowing all-male or all-female colleges, but only “based on biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity,” according to a Department of Education news release.
The investigation into Smith College stems from a complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights in June 2025 by the conservative legal group Defending Education.
“DE and its members oppose, among other things, gender-based discrimination in America’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education,” the organization said in a press release.
New Title IX regulations were enacted during the Biden administration to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But they were rejected in January 2025 by a federal judge who ruled that the rules had legal deficiencies.
