In an effort to champion more diversity and inclusion on campus, a Virginia women’s college has recently decided to update its policy to now allow transgender students who transitioned from female-to-male during their time at the school the ability to be able to still obtain their college degree.
As @NBCNews reports, Hollins University, a private women’s college in Roanoke, Virginia, has announced a new policy allowing students who transition from female-to-male during their time at school to now officially remain enrolled and ultimately earn their degree despite it being an institution for women. Under the new guidelines enrolled students who transition will no longer be required to transfer to another college. The new policy also benefits future applicants, as they no longer have to complete a full surgical transition before being eligible for admission.
Underneath the new policy guidelines, Hollins University will also consider admission for any undergraduate applicants who “consistently live and identify as women, regardless of the gender assigned to them at birth.” However, applicants must identify as women on application materials and students who were assigned female at birth but who now identify as male are not eligible for admission. The policy says individuals who identify as nonbinary, meaning a gender identity that’s not strictly male or female, are also not eligible for admission.
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The college’s initial transgender policy, created back in 2007, stated that a person born male must have completed full transition surgery to female in order to apply. What that policy did was allow enrolled students to adopt a male identity, but if they took steps to transition, they would only be able to finish out the semester before the university required them to transfer to another institution. Despite several revisions to the policy in 2013, 2016 and the most recent one, Hollins University has been criticized for its policy described as “unfair and invasive.”
Hollins’ Board of Trustees Chairwoman, Alexandra Trower, released a statement saying that “the changes adopted recognize gender plurality while maintaining the university’s identity as a women’s college.”
Roommates, what are your thoughts on this?
