The U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation Monday into Smith College, a women’s institution in Massachusetts, for accepting transgender women.
The investigation by the department’s Office of Civil Rights will look into whether the college violated Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in education.
The move is the latest by the Trump administration — whose rhetoric has been affected Often included attacks On Transgender People – To limit the rights of transgender people in the United States. The administration said Title IX bars trans women from Participation in women’s sportsSuing several states and opening investigations into schools because of… Non-compliance.
Smith College, a private liberal arts school founded in 1871, has been accepting trans women since 2015. Along with many others Elite women’s colleges.
The school’s admissions policies drew attention and sparked activism on campus in 2013, when a transgender high school student was denied admission because her gender identity did not match that on her financial aid forms.
Its website now says that “any applicants who self-identify as women; cis, trans, and non-binary women” are eligible to apply to the school. Advocates have supported this shift over the years, saying that women’s colleges were founded to educate those marginalized because of their gender.
The number of women’s colleges in the United States has dropped from more than 200 to just 30 as of fall 2023, according to the Alliance for Women’s Colleges.
A college spokesman did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
According to the Department of Education in a press release, Title IX contains an exception that allows colleges to be all-male or all-female, but it only applies “on the basis of biological sex difference, not self-gender identity.”
The investigation into Smith College stems from a complaint filed with the Office for Civil Rights in June 2025 by the conservative legal group Education Defense.
“DE and its members oppose, among other things, sex discrimination in America’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education,” the organization said in a press release.
During the Biden administration. New Title IX regulations It was issued to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. However, that was it hit down By a federal judge in January 2025 who determined that the rules were legally flawed.