Mills College, a women’s liberal arts college in Oakland, Calif., recently amended its undergraduate admissions policy to allow transgender students to enroll. Following a unanimous vote in favor of the policy by the school’s trustees in May, the undergraduate admissions policy went into effect today, the school’s first day of classes.
The historically progressive women’s college is the only of the country’s 119 single-sex colleges to have a codified policy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The policy amendments only impact applicants and students in the undergraduate program. Its graduate programs are co-educational.
Under the new policy applicants may now include self-identified females as well as those who identify as gender-fluid but were born female. Applicants who were assigned female at birth but have legally become male are not allowed to apply to the undergraduate program. The amendments also now allow current students who transitioned after enrolling to graduate.
“Of the roughly 1,000 undergraduates at Mills, three to five each year are transgender or identify as something other than the gender they were assigned at birth,” Brian O’Rourke, vice president of enrollment and admissions, told the Chronicle.
Incoming student body president Skylar Crownover, who identifies as male, said it was always understood at Mills, but not codified. “Mills has the most open policy with regards to trans students” he said.
