When transgender students fill out college applications, they often run into trouble right out of the box — or, rather, in the box that students typically must check to indicate their biological gender.
The gender identities of some people may not conform to a binary of biological male or female, much less align with what’s listed on their birth certificates. Colleges also expect potential students to enroll under the legal name that matches their government-issued ID and school records, not the name they may have chosen to represent their gender identity. As more openly transgender students apply to colleges, many of those students and institutions are wrestling with inflexible data systems and entrenched attitudes in an effort to make the admissions and enrollment processes more trans-friendly.
Researchers estimate that people who self-identify as transgender make up less than half a percent of Americans, but trans people are becoming increasingly visible in society, thanks in part to celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and the actress Laverne Cox.
In 2011, Elmhurst College became the first institution to ask LGBTQ-identity questions on its admissions application, according to Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an expert on transgender issues. A list that Beemyn maintains for Campus Pride, a national college LGBTQ-advocacy group, now cites more than 200 such institutions, including the University of California and State University of New York systems.
But most college-application forms do not allow for gender identities beyond biological male and female. For example, the Common Application, software that is used by more than 500 institutions, asks students to declare themselves male or female, as consistent with their birth certificates.
Daniel Willey, a junior at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, came out as transgender as a senior in high school, just as he began applying to colleges. “I remember feeling uncomfortable and not really knowing how to interact with it in an honest way,” he says of an application process that insisted on categorizing him by legal name and gender. “It seemed weird and wrong.”
Last year the U.S. Education Department issued guidance that made clear that transgender students are protected from discrimination by the federal civil-rights law Title IX. A growing effort to improve enrollment and retention for all students also provides an incentive for making the college experience better for transgender students. But, Beemyn asks, “How do you address that if you don’t even know who these students are?”
Colleges seeking to be more responsive to transgender applicants must work around such issues to smooth the way. Jess Myers, director of the Women’s Center at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and coordinator of the transgender-student support group on campus, says administrators there rely on an informal network of information about prospective students who are openly transgender.
For example, Myers says, someone from the honors college might meet with a student to discuss academic issues. With the student’s permission, that administrator might alert Myers that the student could benefit from an online chat with a counselor familiar with LGBTQ issues, or help make sure that the residence-hall roster reflects the student’s chosen name.
But in the absence of formal systems, there are snags. Willey enrolled at UMBC in part because of its gender-neutral housing program, one of nearly 200 such programs at colleges nationwide. Because of a software error, however, he was at first assigned to a women’s dormitory instead of the gender-neutral housing he requested. He and other transgender students at UMBC still have to email their professors at the beginning of each semester to make sure they use students’ chosen names during roll call, rather than the legal names that still populate class rosters.
Given the many databases containing student information at any college, some confusion may be inevitable. But Myers says that until there is database software that can better accommodate the needs of transgender students, supportive administrators will be forced to “find ways to meet students along the way.”
The Common App has so far resisted calls from students and advocates to include questions relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in the required information for applicants. However, the software includes a customizable page that institutions can use to ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity, notes Aba Blankson, director of communications for the organization.
Society’s view of transgender people has changed in the past few years, she says, and the issue of gender identity is on the minds of the Common App’s leadership. “I think we’ll see some changes in the next few years,” she says.
But she cautions that Common App membership, like higher education itself, spans a diverse group of institutions, with different levels of comfort about adopting such changes. “We want to be able to hear from everybody and make the best decision for students and our member colleges,” she says.
Most colleges continue to handle the challenges of admitting and accommodating transgender students on an ad hoc basis, but some are finding it necessary to be clearer about their policies. Mount Holyoke College is among a handful of women’s colleges that for years have been admitting students who identify as transgender or nonbinary (meaning they did not identify as male or female), according to Lynn Pasquerella, its president. But she was concerned that making such decisions on a case-by-case basis “didn’t provide sufficient clarity for those who were wondering whether they’d be welcome into our community.” In 2014 the college announced that it would consider all applicants who were born female, regardless of gender identity, as well as those who were born male but identify partially or completely as women.
While not all alumnae agree with the policy, the college has faced no significant challenges to it, she says.
Other institutions take a less-inclusive approach. Some religiously affiliated colleges believe that supporting transgender students conflicts with their missions. In 2014, two Christian colleges, Spring Arbor University and Simpson University, won a Title IX exemption that allowed them to deny admission to transgender students. Neither college responded to requests for comment. But some colleges with Christian affiliations are “seeking ways to pastorally care for these students in a way that is consistent with their theological convictions,” says Shapri D. LoMaglio, vice president for government and external relations at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, in an email.
Historically black colleges have acquired a reputation over the years for being unwelcoming to LGBTQ students. Morehouse College, which in 2009 introduced a dress code for its all-male student body that deemed inappropriate any clothing “associated with women’s garments,” did not respond to requests for comment. Only five HBCUs have participated in the Campus Pride Index, a voluntary assessment of LGBTQ-friendliness, but more HBCUs have started to acknowledge the issues facing transgender students. Dillard University, for example, has no explicit nondiscrimination policy for transgender students but would welcome those who meet admissions requirements, says David D. Page, vice president for enrollment management. “Times have changed,” he says.
When it comes to making transgender students feel welcome, “the little things are what’s really important,” says Skylar Pardue, a sophomore at UMBC who identifies as nonbinary. Pardue was not out during the application process but made note of the LGBTQ student organizations and other trans-friendly resources during an orientation visit.
UMBC could be doing more, Pardue and Willey say. Willey found information about gender-neutral housing on the university’s website, for example, but little other evidence of LGBTQ activity on the website or in recruiting materials.
They say they want the university to include its Queer Lounge on campus tours. Such inclusion would signal to potential students who are LGBTQ that “someone is thinking about people like me,” Willey says.
But perhaps just as important, adding the tucked-away lounge, with its couches and lending library, to the campus tour would signal to everyone that LGBTQ students are part of the campus community, too.
