Morehouse Sticking to Mission With New Gender Policy
Morehouse’s new gender policy enhances the college’s mission to develop men.
Morehouse’s new Gender Identity Policy has caused students to question if it’s fair for students who transition during their college experience to be removed from campus. On Saturday, April 13, The Morehouse College Board of Trustees passed a new policy that included a rule that would prevent men who transition into women during their matriculation from staying enrolled at the college. This rule won’t impact any students until fall 2020. The new policy, however will allow for people who self-identify as men, regardless of their sex assigned at birth, to be considered for admission. The board has been working for the past 15 months on the policy.
This work included not only looking at Spelman’s Gender Policy, but also the gender policies of other institutions. Morehouse students, faculty, staff and alumni were consulted for feedback. Based on Morehouse College’s mission along with the policies of other gender separate schools, I do believe that it is fair for men who transition into women to be removed from the institution.
“My response to that is that we’re still being true to our mission,” Vice President of Student Enrollment Terrance Dixon said. “We are an institution that has been a place that admits men and graduates them. We’re still a men’s college, so that’s why we are not entertaining transgender women because we would not ordinarily entertain women for admission to the college, folks that identify as women.”
Since Morehouse’s founding in 1867, the school’s mission has been to “develop men with disciplined minds who will lead lives of leadership and service.” If Morehouse let transgender women graduate from the school, then the institution would no longer be just for men. Morehouse might as well make it an HBCU open to both men and women, regardless of if they are transgender or not. If transgender women are allowed to graduate from Morehouse’s campus, then all women should be allowed to graduate from the institution. Other gender separate schools like Smith College and Saint John’s University have policies that prevent transgender students of the opposite sex from being admitted into the school.
Morehouse isn’t the first HBCU to create a gender policy. Howard University, North Carolina Central University, Tuskegee University and Morgan State University all have have gender policies. The difference with Morehouse’s policy is that it excludes transgender women. Morehouse is the only HBCU for African-American men, and the only way that the school can remain for men only is by excluding transgender women.
“The only difference here, as you know, is that we’re not the only HBCU that has taken on the transgender policy,” Dixon said. “The difference is that we are Morehouse and we are the only institution for African-American men in the country.”
In response to Morehouse’s history of allowing transgender women to graduate, I would say that progress works in both ways. Morehouse is no longer ignoring the fact that transgender students exists. With the admission of all types of men, comes the exclusion of all types of women.
One problem I do see with this part of the policy is the idea that students who transition from men to women during their matriculation have to basically start all over. Those students would have to transfer colleges and receive whatever credit that they could getf rom their Morehouse courses. I believe that Spelman, Morehouse and Clark Atlanta University should work together to allow those students to continue their education at the same classification that they were in before they transferred from Morehouse. By not doing this, I believe that Morehouse is sending the message that the work that they have done here doesn’t matter. While I don’t believe that they should be allowed to stay at Morehouse based on the college’s mission, I do believe that the work they did at Morehouse should be rewarded.
“In this case the college would expel students for something they have no control over,” 2017 Morehouse graduate Titi Naomi Tukes said to CNN.
Tukes is right in the sense that students have no control over if they decide to transition. College is a time to find yourself, not just in terms of your future profession, but also in terms of your gender. There’s nothing wrong with transitioning. But, Morehouse shouldn’t have to go against their mission by allowing transgender women to stay. Students who decided to attend Morehouse already knew the college’s mission before arriving. Also, Morehouse is supposed to turn boys into men. The goal of transgender women should be to develop into a grown woman. This can’t be done by remaining at Morehouse.
My name is Torrence Banks and I am a journalism student at Morehouse College.
