An education watchdog organization is slamming Smith College as the school faces a federal probe over alleged Title IX violations. Nearly one year after Defending Education filed a complaint against Smith College, the Trump administration announced its investigation.
The Education Department said in a statement on Monday that Smith College was allowing “biological men” into “women-only spaces, including dormitories, bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletic teams.” The Trump administration’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating whether the college’s policy is a violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
“An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,” assistant secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement. “Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law.”
Defending Education, a national grassroots organization that focuses on combating “harmful agendas” in educational institutions, filed a complaint against Smith College in June 2025, accusing the college of violating Title IX.
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“Admitting men who feel like women means that the institution — formerly one of the nation’s prestigious ‘Seven Sisters’ all-women’s colleges — is no longer for women only,” Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
“Smith also discriminates against women by operating bathroom and facilities policies that open spaces once reserved for women’s safety and privacy to anyone who ‘identifies’ as a woman. That makes a mockery of the ‘all-women’ institution,” Perry added.
Defending Education accused Smith College of discriminating against female students in ways beyond the invasion of women-only spaces by biological men. The organization pointed out that while Smith College will admit biological males who identify as women, it will not admit biological women who identify as men. Defending Education claims that this is another form of unequal treatment.
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The college’s wellness center offers “gender-affirming care to students across the gender spectrum.” This includes the use of “an informed consent model to initiate and/or continue hormone therapy.” The center offers a variety of services, including counseling, injection lessons, sharps containers, letters and referrals for gender-affirming surgeries and more.
Smith College first announced that it would admit transgender women on May 2, 2015. The policy allows self-identified women, meaning those who are cisgender, transgender and nonbinary, to be admitted to the college. Then-Smith College President Kathleen McCartney and then-Board of Trustees Chair Elizabeth Mugar Eveillard said the change was made “in light of society’s evolving understanding of gender.”
“The board’s decision affirms Smith’s unwavering mission and identity as a women’s college, our commitment to representing the diversity of women’s lived experiences, and the college’s exceptional role in the advancement of women worldwide,” the 2015 joint statement read.
“In the years since Smith’s founding, concepts of female identity have evolved. Smith alumnae have been leaders in the movement to afford women greater freedoms of aspiration and self-expression,” the statement continued.
Despite the policy change, the college said that it would “continue to use gendered language, including female pronouns” in official communications.
Fox News Digital did not receive a response from Smith College in time for publication.
