Smith College spent 155 years calling itself a women's college.
Then it started admitting men – and daring the federal government to say something about it.
Trump's Department of Education just said something.
Smith College's Own Admission Policy Doomed It
The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College on Monday.
The charge is straightforward: Smith calls itself an all-women's institution, claims the federal single-sex exemption, and then admits biological males.
That's fraud on the taxpayer.
"An all-women's college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males," said Kimberly Richey, the Department of Education's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.
Smith didn't stumble into this position.
The college's own admissions page states it "considers for admission any applicants who self-identify as women" – cis, trans, and nonbinary women explicitly listed as eligible.
They put it on the website and dared the federal government to enforce the law they were openly violating.
This Is the School That Graduated Barbara Bush and Gloria Steinem
Think about who went to Smith.
Barbara Bush. Julia Child. Sylvia Plath. Gloria Steinem. Betty Friedan.
These women chose Smith specifically because it was a women's college – because something about that environment, that community, that promise mattered to them.
Smith has spent 155 years fundraising off that legacy.
Every alumnae magazine, every reunion, every donation appeal leans on those names and what this institution stood for.
In 2015, Smith's board of trustees voted to change the admissions policy to include biological males who identify as women.
They announced it was about "affirming Smith's unwavering mission and identity as a women's college."
They did not ask the women who built that institution whether redefining "woman" was what they had in mind when they wrote their checks.
The biological women who chose Smith because it was a women's college did not sign up to share dormitories, bathrooms, and locker rooms with biological males.
https://twitter.com/nickineily/status/2051396801400574266?s=20
That is the entire point of the institution they chose.
The Conservative Group That Spent a Year Fighting This
The investigation didn't happen on its own.
A conservative nonprofit called Defending Education filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in June 2025 – nearly a year ago.
Their mission: protecting schools from activists imposing harmful agendas.
They argued that Smith was claiming a federal single-sex exemption, collecting federal money on that basis, and running an admissions policy that contradicted both.
Defending Education also pointed out something the media largely ignored.
Smith's policy admits biological males who identify as women – but bars biological females who identify as men from applying at all.
The same policy that lets biological males in keeps biological females who identify as men out.
The left built that contradiction themselves.
Defending Education spent a year pushing the complaint through the system.
Trump's Department of Education picked it up and acted.
This Is Exactly What Title IX Was Designed to Protect
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 includes a specific carve-out for single-sex institutions.
https://twitter.com/OffThePress1/status/2051663372509151546?s=20
The logic was simple: some women want an educational environment without men.
Congress recognized that right and protected it.
What Congress did not do – what no one in 1972 could have imagined needing to specify – was define "women's college" to mean "college for biological women only."
They didn't write that because it was obvious.
It is still obvious.
The Department of Education's statement made the legal point directly: the single-sex exception "applies on the basis of biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity."
Smith is taking federal money, claiming a federal exemption, and refusing to honor the biological definition that exemption requires.
"Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law," Richey said.
The Trump administration is saying that ends now.
Smith Went Silent – and That Tells You Everything
Smith's response to the investigation notice was careful: the college said it is "fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws" and declined to comment on the pending investigation.
https://twitter.com/nickineily/status/2051664817598128605?s=20
Notice what Smith did not say.
They did not say their policy complies with Title IX.
They did not say they would change anything.
That's what institutions say when their lawyers tell them to stop talking.
Federal civil rights investigations carry real consequences.
Institutions found in violation of Title IX risk losing federal financial assistance – the funding stream that makes elite private education possible for students who aren't paying full tuition.
Smith has been openly running this policy since 2015.
They had eleven years to reckon with whether taking federal money for a "women's college" while admitting biological males was something they could defend in court.
They bet no one would ever make them answer for it.
They bet wrong.
Sources:
- Alex Nitzberg, "Trump admin investigates all-women's college for admitting male students," Fox News, May 5, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Title IX Investigation Statement – Smith College, May 5, 2026.
- Smith College, "First-Year Applicants – Who Is Eligible to Apply," smith.edu, accessed May 5, 2026.
- Valerie Richardson, "Trump administration opens probe into all-women Smith College for admitting biological males," The Washington Times, May 4, 2026.
- Defending Education, Civil Rights Complaint – Smith College, Office for Civil Rights, June 2025.
