Smith's rejection of the application of Calliope Wong, a male-to-female transgender high school student from Connectcut, has trigged political activism on the campus.
NORTHAMPTON — Smith Q&A, a group that focuses on raising awareness about transgender issues at Smith College, has announced plans to deliver more than 4,000 signatures from its Change.org petition to Smith College’s Office of Admissions on Thursday at 4 p.m.
The online petition drive followed the college’s refusal to consider the application of Calliope Wong, a male-to-female transgender high school student from Connecticut.
The Smith Q&A petition urges Smith College to adopt admissions policies that are welcoming and supportive to all transgender women applicants.
A letter dated March 5 to Wong from Smith Dean of Admission Debra Shaver and posted on the student’s Tumblr blog states that the reason for the rejection is that she is listed as male on the standard Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.
“As you may remember from our previous correspondence, Smith is a women’s college, which means that undergraduate applicants to Smith must be female at the time of admission,” Shaver stated in the letter.
In March, the college’s rejection of Wong drew national attention after generating reports on The Huffington Post and in USA Today.
At the time, Laurie Felason, Smith’s vice president for public affairs, emailed to The Republican the section of the college’s policies on gender identity and expression.
That document states that the college has students who identify as transgender and that it does not decide who is a woman, but “relies upon the information provided by each student applicant.
“It also states that any student who completes the college’s graduation requirements regardless of gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation is awarded a Smith degree.
The Smith Q&A petition urges Smith College to adopt admissions policies that are welcoming and supportive to all transgender women applicants.
“The issue of allowing trans woman access to women’s spaces is real and prevalent. The trans community is one of the most marginalized in our current culture, and it hurts to see our school not only contributing to that marginalization, but clinging to it despite our call for change,” Smith student Elli Palmer stated in a release issued by Change.org.
Wong and students at Smith have been working with GLAAD, an organization that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, to raise awareness about Smith’s admissions policy and call on Smith to change its admissions policies
“The fact that thousands of people signed this petition goes to show that this is not simply a ‘Smith College’ issue. It is an issue that LGBT people and their allies across the country care about. We hope that delivering this petition will signal to the college that it is time to step up,” Smith student Ollie Schwartz stated in the Change.org release.
Smith Q&A planned to host a teach-in Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. outside the Smith Campus Center in response to the Wong issue.