Barnard Set to Admit Transgender Women

Barnard College will now admit students who live and identify as women — even if they were considered male at birth. The new admission policy goes into effect the beginning of fall 2016.

Barnard president Debora L. Spar told WNYC that the women’s college started considering changing the policy last year following demands from its students.

“They really started pushing us to redefine or be more specific about what we meant by ‘women,’” Spar said.  

Spar said the school will continue to only admit women. As for transgender men who were legally identified as women when they entered Barnard?

“We already have a number of trans men on our campus. They graduate. They’re wonderful fully embedded parts of the student body and that will continue,” Spar said.

Women’s colleges across the United States have been struggling with how to accommodate transgender students. Barnard's decision to admit transgender women came after a year-long process conducted by the Board of Trustees. Spar said it was an education for many who come from an older generation and see gender more as a binary.

“Realizing that the generation that is coming of age now sees gender as much more fluid … it was a learning process and that’s why we took the time to really educate ourselves,” Spar said. “There really were no active debates. It was really just getting folks to realize that the world is changing and we want to change along with it.”