Women's college in Virginia bars transgender women from attending over school's charter

Sweet Briar College in Virginia has banned transgender students that identify as female from attending the women's school next year, citing language in the college's charter.

Sweet Briar President Mary Pope Hutson told the college community earlier this month that the school's charter must be interpreted as it was intended at the time, and therefore applicants need to be biological women who live and identify as female.

The 20th century private liberal arts school was founded in 1901. 

“Sweet Briar College believes that single-sex education is not only our tradition, but also a unique cultural and social resource,”  Hutson told the Associated Press in a story published Friday.

Hutson's comments have been met with harsh criticism from the school's students and faculty, because founder Indiana Fletcher Williams's will, which serves as the school's charter, also specified that the students have to be white, which is no longer a requirement.

“Williams also wouldn’t have entertained the notion that somebody who was disabled would be a potential student,” John Gregory Brown, one of the school's professors, said.

The school's faculty on Monday also voted to demand the board rescinds the policy. Forty-eight members voted in favor of the demand, four voted against the demand, and one person abstained.

The Sweet Briar College Student Government Association has also condemned the policy, claiming it was "alienating, unnecessary, and reflects the rise of transphobia in our country.”

One board member has also resigned over the controversy.

“Many [alumnae] want Sweet Briar to remain a place where women can thrive, and they believe that a broader policy is a slippery slope toward co-education,” Hutson said. “They strongly support this policy.”

Sweet Briar College is one of just 30 members of the Women’s College Coalition still remaining within the United States, a notable drop from the 1960s, when there were over 200 American female colleges in the coalition. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.