Federal Probe Targets Smith College Over Trans Admissions Policy
The Trump administration opens a Title IX investigation into Smith College, challenging whether self-identified gender identity can override biological sex at women-only institutions and setting a precedent for colleges nationwide.
The Trump administration opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College on May 4, asserting that an all-women's college forfeits its legal standing the moment it admits biological males. The probe represents a direct federal challenge to gender ideology in higher education, testing whether self-identification can replace biological sex as the foundation for single-sex spaces.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey stated that "an all-women's college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males." The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights launched the investigation into the Northampton, Massachusetts, institution after receiving a complaint filed last June. Case number 01-25-2398 examines whether Smith violates Title IX by admitting individuals born male who identify as women and granting them access to women-only dormitories, bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletic teams.
Title IX's single-sex exception allows colleges to maintain all-male or all-female admissions. The administration argues this provision applies only to biological sex differences, not subjective gender identity. The Department of Education declared in its May 4 press release: "An all-girls college that enrolls male students professing a female identity would cease to qualify as single sex under Title IX."
This investigation marks the first time federal authorities have directly targeted a women's college's admissions policy. The outcome sets a precedent that could reshape enrollment standards at every women's college in America. At least eight of the nation's approximately 31 women's colleges have adopted trans-inclusive admissions policies since 2014, including Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard. A finding against Smith would force all of them to reconsider.
Smith College, founded in 1871 and one of the original Seven Sisters, changed its admissions policy in 2015 to include self-identified transgender women. The shift followed national attention after the college returned the 2013 application of Calliope Wong, a transgender woman whose legal documents listed her sex as male. Smith's current policy requires only self-identification, stating that "cis, trans, and nonbinary women are eligible to apply." The college does not publish the number of transgender students enrolled.
The investigation stems from a Title IX complaint filed by Defending Education on June 20, 2025. Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at the conservative nonprofit and a former Senior Counsel at the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, authored the complaint. Perry stated: "Smith College, while still portraying itself as a women's-only institution, admits natal men who feel like women, and on nothing more than their say-so." She added that the policy "renders the gains of second-wave feminists who fought for Title IX mere relics of ancient history."
President Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." The order redefined "sex" as "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female" and rescinded all Biden-era Title IX guidance documents that had extended protections to transgender students. The Smith investigation represents the latest enforcement action in this pattern, following similar Title IX probes against San Jose State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
LGBTQ rights advocates condemned the investigation as government overreach. Shannon Minter, attorney at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, called it "an ominous example of government overreach into private institutions" and argued Title IX was meant to "protect people against all forms of sex-based discrimination, including discrimination against transgender people." Nicholas Hite, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, stated that trans inclusion is "a perfectly logical next step" for women's colleges. These positions rest on a contested interpretation of Title IX that the Trump administration explicitly rejected through executive order and formal agency guidance.
If OCR finds a Title IX violation, Smith College could lose federal funding until it achieves compliance. The college's spokesperson Carolyn McDaniel confirmed receipt of the investigation notice and stated the school is "fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws" but declined further comment. Smith's ultimate response remains undecided, but the investigation carries implications far beyond Northampton: it tests whether the single-sex exception in Title IX can survive the erasure of biological sex from federal policy.