I am also a women's college alumna. I fully expect a lot of comments in this thread to blast the whole notion of women's colleges. ("Waah! I thought feminism was about ending discrimination -- yet women's colleges discriminate! Waah!") So as a preliminary matter, I would note that most women's colleges were founded when places like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were not open to women, and indeed, when a regular college education was not generally available to women. Given that the scope of women's abilities is still a hotly debated topic and that editorials are still published to the effect that women are dumb, it seems reasonable for these single-sex institutions to maintain the same mission of nurturing women's intellectual capacities in an environment relatively free from cultural ideas about the relative abilities of the genders.

As an alumna, I would like to see my college and others like it serving all individuals who may be affected by the experience of being female. This would include women who transition to become men. These transmales are presumably effected by the experience of growing up female. This would also include men who transition to become women. These transfemales clearly identify as women and will be considered female in their lives going forward. Both categories of students can benefit from the unique atmosphere of a women's college. I would be proud and happy to have my institution serve them.

This story interested and disturbed me for several reasons.

First, I don't understand why he didn't just apply to Columbia. I went to school at the co-ed counterpart the school Rey started out at. I recall women from Barnard as being quite integrated in the student body of Columbia as in we shared dorms, work study, classes, etc. I guess he was trying to make a statement, but it doesn't seem courageous to me.

Second, this brings me to my broader point - Rey seems like a prototypical, white, wealthy youth who is trying to rebel and create for himself minority/underprivileged existence. To me, as a so-called minority who grew up non-wealthy, this attitude, which by the way is common among the trendier set, is insulting, annoying, patronizing, infantile, foolish, wrongheaded, and dopey.

Third, why are women trying to pigeonhole themselves? I'm hardly a girly girl - i.e I was mistaken for a boy as a child, I had/have mostly male friends, I didn't know how to apply make up or even care to until I was like 20. Does this make me a man? No. It just doesn't. It makes me a unique human being. I don't understand why its good to encourage children, and at 18 you're a child, to choose, CHOOSE, a gender if they are uncomfortable being a "girly girl." Being a woman doesn't mean acting uber-feminine.

That said, I would never deny someone the ability to transform into a different or more correct gender. Good luck to Rey.

I disagree that it will require a delicate balance to accommodate transmale students.

Sure, I can understand that a woman student might not feel comfortable sharing a room with someone who is now male. This seems like a very easy conflict to resolve. The college can either provide a single room, place 2 transmale students together (assuming there are 2 transmale students), or perhaps can find another roommate who is not disturbed by living with a transmale students.

As for the larger question raised in the article about women students who feel betrayed in their expectation of being educated alongside women only, I say, "Piffle!" Accommodating transmale (or transfemale students) will not change the character of these institutions. Most of these schools have had cross-enrollment with co-ed schools for decades now. You always have a couple guys in your classes, plus someone's boyfriend is always semi-living in the dorm surreptitiously. A few transmales in addition to the men from other colleges will not make a difference, and accommodating them will fulfill the broader mandate of these schools.

Thank you for your thoughtful posts. I too am a women's college graduate -- in fact, a graduate of one of the colleges mentioned in THE NY TIMES article. I read the letters from my Alumnae Quarterly from the two women quoted, and I too was concerned. Your description of access "to the experience of being a woman" is the first rationale I've heard that helps me think logically about this.

After all, this isn't the first time the issue has arisen. Dr. Renee Richards became the first person to suit up for tennis on -both- sides of Yale's locker rooms: she was an undergraduate at Yale while male, and went back to her now-coed university to play as well.

I see the issue of people sharing a room as a non-starter. There -are- singles on campus, and a student with strong individual needs (or just a damn good number in the room lottery) can get one. Certainly, a student in the process of trans surgery could claim medical need.

As I try to think this one out, I'm not seeing it as de facto coeducation. My college's current president caused some concern by -being- concerned about my college's remaining single sex and has since changed her mind. I don't see this as de facto coeducation. As you say, there have been men on campus on exchange programs (THEY are the coeds) since the late 1960s.

I think that students who apply to a women's college under the expectation of undergoing the female-to-male surgery should probably be guaranteed a transfer to other schools in the various consortia: the Five Colleges; the Ten Colleges. Students thinking it over -after- they're admitted can benefit from the environment to do some thinking in an environment set up to be maximally supportive to women.

The question of young men thinking of undergoing male-to-female gender reassignment...that's trickier to me. Certainly, a person who is male at the time cannot apply. A person considering male-to-female reassignment might want to take a year on campus as a way of finding out if this is really what that student wants. That person would not be a degree candidate and would be part of the process. Similarly, a person in the process of the reassignment might find help and healing as well as a fine education there. And certainly, someone who's completed her reassignment should be welcome as a returning student.

We've always been in the forefront of gender issues: our relatively small sizes, fairly solid financial positions, facilities and intellectual dialogue might enable us to be of service, provided that the emphasis remains on offering gifted women (however they were born) a first-class education and ongoing community opportunities.

Thank you for helping me organize my thoughts.