Transgender policy of women’s college under Title IX review

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights on Monday began an investigation into one of the largest all-women’s colleges in America for admitting men. Smith College in Northampton, Mass., was founded in 1871 but began admitting male students who identified as women in 2015. The school has about 2,500 undergraduate students, according to its website.

The Office for Civil Rights said it would determine whether the college’s policies violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by allowing men into women’s intimate spaces, including bathrooms. The landmark law, which gave women equal access to education, contains an exception allowing colleges to have single-sex student bodies. But that exception is based on biological sex, not subjective gender identity, the Education Department said. Smith College may not qualify as single-sex under Title IX, the department said.

The Trump administration’s Education Department has sued several colleges over their transgender policies or threatened to withhold their federal funding. Smith College did not appear to have released a public statement on the investigation as of Tuesday morning.

Has Smith College released any information on student safety in intimate spaces? A 2025 survey of part of the Smith student body found that 68% of those surveyed experienced sexual misconduct, such as harassment, assault, or rape, during their time at the college. However, the survey didn’t include information on whether the perpetrators were also students. Most of the incidents referenced by the survey respondents had not been formally reported.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on the Education Department’s funding ultimatum to San Jose State University.