Sweet Briar College Faces Backlash Over New Admissions Policy 

Timothy M. Burke, Fraternal Law Partners, tburke@manleyburke.com

Sweet Briar College was founded  by—and funded through the will of—Fletcher Williams in 1900 to be a school for “girls and young women.” The College has a history of promoting inclusion, even taking legal action to remove the restriction against admitting Black students after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came into effect.

In recent years, as with most women’s colleges and universities, Sweat Briar had not restricted admission to only those who had been assigned at birth as female. However, that all changed this summer when the President and Chair of the College Board announced that any future applicant must “confirm that her sex assigned at birth is female and that she consistently lives and identifies as a woman.”1 The President justified the decision by stating that Williams’ will remains legally binding and “must be interpreted as it was understood at the time it was written.” 2

U.S. News reported that “Williams’ will stipulated that the school was to be a place ‘for the education of white girls and young women.’”3

The policy shift has sparked criticism. The Sweet Briar faculty voted 48-4 in favor of rescinding the new rule, and the Student Government Association condemned the decision, calling it “alienating, unnecessary, and reflective of the rise of transphobia in our country,” as reported by U.S. News.4

In the meantime, the lawsuits against Kappa Kappa Gamma related to the controversy over the admission of a transgender member remain pending in both Wyoming and Ohio.

1 Trudy Ring, A Virginia College Bans Transgender Students — Based on Language From the Year 1900, Advocate (Sept. 4, 2024, 5:39 AM).

2 Id.

3 Ben Finley, Women’s College in Virginia Bars Transgender Students Based on Founder’s Will from 1900, U.S. News (Aug. 30, 2024,6:45 PM).

4  Id.