Do transgender students adhere to the mission of a womens college?
The changing mission of a women’s college Glossy admissions packets display women happily lounging on the green, intently listening in class and participating in the array of extracurricular activities Mount Holyoke has to offer. But where are the men? Men you ask? This is a women’s college. A women’s college with a twist. Mount Holyoke and her fellow sisters are witnessing a rise in the number of transgender students at their schools. An April 8 article in the Boston Globe entitled “When She Graduates as He” by Adrian Brune posed the question, “Is it still a women’s college when some students who were female as freshman are male by graduation day?” The article profiled two of Mount Holyoke’s own transgender students, Kevin Murphy ’07 and Isaiah Bartlett ’09. While the trans population at Mount Holyoke remains small, it does elicit questions about the purpose of a single sex education. The mission on the College’s website reads, “Mount Holyoke College reaffirms its commitment to educat
