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As civil rights conflicts go, the plight of transgender and "gender fluid" students being rejected from single-sex colleges is typically down on the list - if it makes the list at all.
The best-known example is last year's rejection by Smith College of Calliope Wong, a transgender high school student who applied to the Massachusetts women's college but was told she didn't qualify because her federal financial aid papers called her male. Smith students are still protesting.
But of the nation's 119 single-sex colleges for men or women, Mills College in Oakland is apparently the only campus that explicitly lets applicants choose a gender and be considered for enrollment - if that choice is female.
The new policy will be in place for the first time as students return to class on Aug. 27. The trustees' enrollment committee unanimously approved it in May, clarifying a host of what-ifs at the stately women's college founded in 1862:
- Applicants "not assigned to the female sex at birth" but who self-identify as women are welcome.
- Applicants "who do not fit into the gender binary" -- being neither male nor female -- are eligible if they were "assigned to the female sex at birth."
- Students "assigned to the female sex at birth" who have legally become male prior to applying are not eligible unless they apply to the graduate program, which is coeducational.
- Female students who become male after enrolling may stay and graduate.
ΓÇïRead more at The San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/New-policy-clarifies-female-for-Mills-College-5699337.php#page-1
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