On Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, Spelman College president Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., distributed a letter to the Spelman community regarding an update to the College’s admissions and enrollment policy. In the letter addresses to the “Spelman Community, ” Campbell explains that during the 2016-2017 academic year, a task force comprised of faculty, staff, students, alumnae and trustees were assigned to consider the admissions and enrollment policies at Spelman as they apply to an evolving understanding and knowledge of gender.
Here’s how it reads in part:
“After a year of research, benchmarking against other single-sex women’s colleges, extensive listening sessions with students, faculty, staff and alumnae and surveys to the Spelman community, the task force made a set of recommendations to the president of the College and the Spelman College Board of Trustees.
“As a result of this extensive study, I, as president, along with the Spelman leadership team, and the Board, concur on the following admissions and enrollment policy: Spelman College, a Historically Black College whose mission is to serve high-achieving Black women, will consider for admission women students including students who consistently live and self-identify as women, regardless of their gender assignment at birth. Spelman does not admit male students, including students who self-identify and live consistently as men, regardless of gender assignment at birth. If a woman is admitted and transitions to male while a student at Spelman, the College will permit that student to continue to matriculate at and graduate from Spelman.
“In adopting this admissions policy, Spelman continues its fervent belief in the power of the Spelman Sisterhood. Students who choose Spelman come to our campus prepared to participate in a women’s college that is academically and intellectually rigorous, and affirms its core mission as the education and development of high-achieving Black women.”
Read the letter in its entirety here.
