For most Americans, biological sex and gender are one and the same. Infants usually fit neatly into one of two categories: A newborn is either a boy or a girl. Boys, according to stereotype, are adorned in blue, girls in pink. In short order, most boys and girls will grow up amid social pressures to behave in a manner that aligns culturally with their anatomy. They will play with gendered toys, compete on gendered athletic teams, and, for many of those lucky enough to pursue residential postsecondary education, live in gendered housing. The connection between biological sex and gender norms is woven deeply into the fabric of American society. It affects everything from the way we interact with one another to how we dress and where we use the restroom.

But gender—or what might be called “gender identity” or “gender expression”—often differs from biological sex. “Transgender” people identify themselves as something other than simply male or female. A transgender person might be biologically male but identify culturally as a woman, or vice versa. Moreover, the male/female binary tells an incomplete story even about biological sex. While transgender persons constitute as much as 8% of the population, some researchers estimate that intersex individuals (those whose anatomy is neither fully male nor fully female) account for nearly 1.7% of births worldwide. Given the culturally sensitive nature of nonconforming gender expression and biological sex, data on these populations are often incomplete and hard to nail down. What’s clear, however, is that not everyone fits into boxes labeled either “male” or “female.”

Colleges and universities know little about their transgender populations. Many institutions support student- or staff-led “affinity groups” designed to give students interested in LGBTQA (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, straight ally) issues a forum for likeminded personal connections and sustained and safe discussion space. Still others sponsor awareness or education programs for their students about transgender issues or maintain residential facilities that cater to transgender student needs. But, from a data collection standpoint, institutions and, indeed, the federal government use a system predicated on the gender binary; in large part, when colleges and universities collect gender data about their students they ask simply “male or female?”

There are strong indications that gay, lesbian, and transgender student populations—like other culturally marginalized student groups—persist through the college ranks and complete postsecondary training, on the whole, less successfully than their peers in the cultural mainstream. Threats of physical violence, pressures to hide their identities, fear or discomfort in residential settings all contribute to higher-than-normal attrition rates for gay, lesbian, and transgender students at American colleges and universities. But again data are hard to come by. At the national level, institutional data collection processes (e.g. IPEDS reporting) seek student information along gender lines and make no allowance for transgender or intersex students. This practice renders transgender students invisible to data analysis; researchers are not entirely sure how these students are faring from year to year.

Admissions

At the institutional level, a handful of colleges and universities collect information on student gender identities beyond biological sex, but the trend is in its nascent stages. Institutions like Carleton College, Duke University, and, in New England, Tufts University allow students to communicate a nonconforming gender identity in admissions application forms. These colleges either offer students a blank space in which to describe their gender identities or, in the case of Tufts, they provide a third option—“Other:”—added to check boxes for male and female identities. Either of these strategies involves transgender students in data collection and trend analysis. As college applications convey not only academic qualifications but the personalities, experiences and identities of applying students, as well, these questions also grant transgender students a more representative voice in the college matchmaking process. At some institutions, student identity plays an important role in admission decisions; applicants are asked about their racial and family backgrounds, their personal and academic interests, and even their religions. College admission, at many institutions, is about identity and student background as much as academic qualifications and test scores. Why, then, is gender identity omitted from the conversation at most postsecondary institutions?

Initiatives seeking to include gay, lesbian, and transgender student identities in institutional data collection and admissions decision-making processes are beginning to gain traction. In 2010, Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania joined the nonprofit advocacy group Campus Pride in calling for an alteration to the Common Application. The Common Application allows a college applicant to prepare an admission application by responding to a battery of demographic inquiries, questions about life experiences and interests, and an open-ended essay prompt. That single document—with teacher recommendations, transcripts, institution-specific supplements, and application fees appended—conveys the candidacy of that applicant to as many member institutions as the applicant chooses. More than 400 institutions—including every Ivy League university, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and each of the top 10 national liberal arts colleges (as ranked by U.S. News & World Report)—use the Common Application. The Common App, as it’s known, accounts for millions of college applications submitted each year, and it requires students to report their gender as either male or female.

Dartmouth, Penn, and Campus Pride petitioned the Common Application to either add a third category to gender (akin to the “Other” box at Tufts) or, in deference to federal reporting guidelines, add a question separate from biological sex relating to gender identity. The Common Application polled its members and decided against altering the document, citing the need to conform to federal guidelines and the potential for increased student anxiety as justifications. Common Application officials suggested that asking a student to report a gender identity outside of the male/female binary, even optionally, would place a student in an uncomfortable or even dangerous position with parents and high school officials. (The dilemma is reminiscent of the debate over don’t ask/don’t tell.) Despite the failure of proponents in securing a change to the Common Application, higher education officials and admissions officers around the nation are beginning to recognize that this issue needs serious consideration.

Student services

Transgender students, an often hidden population on many college and university campuses, frequently face embarrassment and discomfort, as well as safety concerns, when it comes to residential life. A biologically male student who identifies as female, for example, can present a challenge for a residential life coordinator who does not know how to best handle the sensitive issues at hand when accommodating a transgender student. While the student may feel most comfortable living in a female dormitory, there may be concerns from roommates, floormates, and parents who feel uncomfortable with such a placement.

Many institutions have enacted gender-neutral housing as a way to combat any prejudices a transgender student might experience when attempting to find on-campus housing. According to Brown University’s Gender-Neutral Housing Policy, “a gender-neutral optional housing designation simply means that either a single-gender group or mixed-gender group may select these rooms, suites, or apartments." Such choice is seen to provide more comfort and safety to transgender residents who want the option to choose whom they will live with, regardless of biological sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, more than 50 institutions have gender-neutral housing policies, including New England campuses such as Connecticut College, Northeastern University, Tufts University and the University of Vermont. While Northeastern has a gender-neutral housing policy “in order to provide a welcoming living environment,” such an option is offered only to junior to senior students, meaning that transgender freshmen and sophomores still must choose between the gender binaries if they are to live on campus.

At Connecticut College, gender-neutral housing is available to students beginning in their sophomore year. According to one trustee, Prescott W. Haffner, “the availability of gender-neutral housing sends an affirming message to all students. It reinforces that the college community welcomes people as individuals, whatever their differences." The policy was enacted in 2009 after a group of students came together, requesting that such a change be implemented on campus.

In fall 2003, the University of Vermont Office of Residential Life “began making selected rooms with private shower facilities available to transgender students upon request,” according to Dot Brauer, director of the LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Allies) at UVM. That same year, signage on more than 20 gender-specific, single-use bathrooms were replaced with gender-neutral signs. More recently, in fall 2010, residential life began offering students more access to gender-neutral housing.

At Tufts, accommodations for transgender students have been existence since fall 2004, with the creation of the transgender housing option, which allows a transgender student to live with whomever they chose, regardless of gender identity. Yet. this past February, Students Acting for Gender Equality (SAGE) at Tufts put together a proposal for gender-neutral housing, meaning that anyone, regardless of if they identify as transgender or cisgender (meaning a match between biological identity and gender identity) can choose to live together in a double-occupancy room. Tom Bourdon, the director of the LGBT Center at Tufts, notes that a move to gender-neutral housing provides more accommodations to cisgender students, as transgender students were already protected under the transgender housing option. Bourdon does note, though, that allowing all people, regardless of gender identity, to live with one another would “shift the general tone of roommate housing,” perhaps making it so transgender students would not “stand out so much” in their housing decisions.

The need for transgender student services spans beyond residential life, though. In the classroom, transgender students can feel uncomfortable being identified by professors and teaching assistants by their legal names.

In 2003, a University of Vermont, student wrote a senior thesis on how the university could become more accommodating to transgender students. That same year, the university created software for its student information system that “puts students’ preferred names and pronouns on class rosters and identification cards but retains their legal names on financial aid and medical forms.”

This arrangement makes things more comfortable for both students and faculty, as it minimizes the confusion as to how students identify. The system also provides a more comfortable way for students to let professors know how they prefer to be identified without having to “out” themselves personally to professors as a transgender student, which can be a highly uncomfortable and emotional experience. According to Brauer, UVM’s registrar completed the coding work in January 2009, allowing the new naming system to be implemented.

Tom Bourdon sees the University of Vermont “at the forefront” of accommodating transgender students. He notes that Tufts is in the process of upgrading its computer system, which will allow it to enact a similar naming system as UVM.

UVM, in spring 2003, also formed the annual Translating Identity Conference, which has brought greater awareness of transgender culture to UVM and surrounding communities. Moreover, in 2005, UVM’s Board of Trustees approved the inclusion of “gender identity and expression” in the institutions’ non-discrimination and harassment policy. According to Brauer, such activism and awareness has come about through “transgender-identified and transgender advocate and activist students, staff and faculty at UVM,” who have “actively participated in informing and shaping the direction of institutional change.”

When asked why such radical changes were able to take place on UVM’s campus, Brauer responded that there is a “different kind of civic culture” in the state of Vermont, combined with the “progressive politics” that lend themselves to the changes that have been enacted at UVM. Other states, she notes, may be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to implementing such changes: “You’re not always going to have a sympathetic provost, willing vice president, and eager registrar”.

Darrell P. Aaron,  David Mabe and Courtney Wilk pursued this project as policy interns at NEBHE and students at Harvard Graduate School of Education. They all now work in college admissions.

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The University of New Hampshire named former Provost Bruce L. Mallory to be interim director of the the university's Carsey Institute for the next two years.

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Mitchell Thomashow, who stepped down as president of Unity College earlier this month, took over as part-time director of the Second Nature Presidential Fellows Program, which is designed to help college leaders promote sustainability agendas on their campuses. Thomashow urged colleagues to share a prospectus for the fellows program with potential candidates.

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Saint Joseph College appointed four new trustees: Patricia LeShane, CEO and co-founder of Sullivan & LeShane, which provides legislative and administrative lobbying, issues-oriented government affairs, public relations and strategic communications services; Nancy Matthews, chancellor of the Diocese of Bridgeport, which includes more than 460,000 registered Catholics in Fairfield County; Lewis Robinson Jr., an  authority on antitrust law and legislative issues; and Christine Whitehead, an attorney and author.

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Champlain College named Dave Strubler, formerly of Michigan's Kettering University, to be dean of the college's Division of Business.

Connecticut

In Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy and a Democratically controlled Legislature racked up a record of accomplishments as the 2011 legislative session came to a close on June 8.

Malloy’s biggest challenge was to close a $3.2 billion shortfall. In the end, a balanced budget of $40.11 billion for the next two years was achieved with spending cuts, the largest tax increase in Connecticut’s history of $1.5 billion and concessions of $1.6 billion over two years from labor, which still remain uncertain. Malloy has warned that failure on the part of labor to come up with concessions will result in up to 4,700 state workers being be laid off. Approximately 60% of the tax increases will come from the income tax. The sales tax will increase from the current 6% to 6.35%, with the end of some exemptions including the exemption on clothing.

The General Assembly’s accomplishments include passage of:

* A bill to reduce energy costs by creating a centralized power authority combining public utilities and environmental protection into a single agency. The new Department of Energy and Environmental Protection which will be headed  by Daniel Esty, a former energy advisor to President Barack Obama.

* A measure purported to increase economic opportunities by creating the Connecticut Airport Authority, a quasi-public agency to oversee Bradley International Airport and five smaller airports in the state.

* A bailout package of $864 million to expand and renovate the ailing University of Connecticut Health Center, which includes UConn's medical and dental schools and the John Dempsey Hospital. The plan, called Bioscience Connecticut is projected to create 3,000 new jobs.

* Funding for a research and technology park at the UConn Storrs campus that will create thousands of jobs. The $170 million package will include construction of a 125,000 square-foot, multilevel facility with research labs and incubator space for business.

* A bill mandating that private employers offer employees paid sick days. Connecticut is the first state in the nation to do so.

* A bill that grants in-state tuition for undocumented students who reside in Connecticut. The state now joins 10 other states that have passed similar measures.

* A bill to decriminalize possession of marijuana which will reduce fines and court costs for people in possession of less than a half ounce of marijuana.

Higher Education

Under Malloy’s budget proposal, the budget of the Connecticut State Universities would be cut by as much as 25% over two years. The first 10% would come from the state budget and the remaining cuts would come from merging the state universities with the Connecticut Community Colleges, Charter Oak State College and the Department of Higher Education which would be governed by a Board of Regents and one administrator. The Connecticut General Assembly’s Program Review Committee issued a report, which detailed skyrocketing tuition, and high administrative costs at the Connecticut State University. Lawmakers gave their blessing to the proposal which affects 100,000 students and more than 6,700 employees and is reported to save $4.3 million over two years, cutting 24 positions. UConn was not part of the plan. University and college officials are still waiting for the details of the merger.

A bill to provide $200,000 to develop a strategic plan for higher education that would include the UConn failed to pass.

Connecticut Community Colleges

Officials at the state’s community colleges are considering ending the longstanding "open door" admissions policy because of a projected $44.3 million budget deficit over the next two years. The Malloy administration and legislators cut community colleges by $13.2 million. In addition, pending cuts in staffing levels as a result of state employee concessions requested by the governor, stand to impact instructional levels. Also, officials are hoping not to raise tuition beyond the 2.3%  increase approved earlier in the year. With rising enrollments, budget cuts and cuts in staffing levels, those that will be hurt the most are low-income and minority students who stand to be shut out of the only point of entry they have to higher education.

State Scholarships

As part of his plan to reduce the state deficit, Malloy proposed cutting 25% of the Connecticut Independent College Scholarship Program at a time when cutbacks have been slated for federal student aid programs including Pell Grants. The program is currently funded at $23.4 million and serves more than 6,000 Connecticut students. After strong objections and outrage was expressed by parents, students and Connecticut college presidents, some of the funding was restored and three proprietary schools and Yale University will no longer be served by the program in the next two years. According to Judith Greiman, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, the budget now calls for an appropriation of just over $18 million in FY 12 and just over $16 million in FY13. Those funds will be allocated to nonprofit colleges and universities. The overall percentage cut to the program is 23% in the first year but only 14.8% to nonprofit institutions. The second year is a 31% cut overall but a 23.8% cut to the nonprofit institutions. In the interim, Greiman expects to work to recover funds for the program.

K-12

The good news is that Malloy kept his campaign promise not to cut local aid which includes the largest portion going to education aid. He provided $540 million over two years in new state funding to Education Cost Sharing Grants.

The bad news is that education reform measures failed to gain passage. While the state applies for the third round of federal Race to the Top funds, state legislators sent a bill to the governor’s desk that effectively delays school-reform measures. Additionally, Malloy has gone six months without appointing a new commissioner of education.

The General Assembly killed a measure that would have changed the age to enter kindergarten to 5 years by October 1. The legislation would also have required that all students be enrolled in kindergarten by age 6. Currently, Connecticut parents can defer a child's enrollment until age 7. Some lawmakers responded that the issue was whether there would be funds to provide alternative preschool programs for students who didn’t make the cutoff.

Other casualties of the session included a bill proposed by Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Education, to require teacher performance evaluations in school districts every two years. Now, any action to review and revise the practice of laying off teachers who were the last to be hired and consequently the first to be fired will be postponed indefinitely. Also, a number of bills to address school finance failed to make any headway in the session.

Vermont  Legislative Session

Newly elected Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and a Democratically controlled legislature closed a $176 million gap in the budget without raising broad-based taxes and completed a 17-week legislative session ahead of schedule, adjourning on May 6. Shumlin worked with legislators to set an economic agenda for the future by passage of the following:

* A bill to reduce healthcare costs while providing health insurance for every Vermont citizen. The legislation establishes a framework to create a single-payer health care system under the direction of a five-member council. The council will define benefits, cost-containment measures and set up insurance exchanges as required by federal law. A plan to fund the measure is to be submitted to the governor by 2013.

* A telecommunications bill to expand broadband coverage and cell-phone service  throughout the state by investing in expanding fiber-optic lines and wireless networks.

* A jobs bill that will allow emerging industries and businesses to have access to capital and credit. The bill is designed to stimulate manufacturing jobs, improve internships and expand job-training programs for young people. Additionally, the bill focuses on Vermont’s agriculture sector and provides for marketing and promotional efforts to be directed toward the Buy Local program and diversification in Vermont’s farming community..

Higher Education

The University of Vermont and the Vermont State Colleges managed to survive further cuts and were level funded in Shumlin’s budget. For FY12, UVM received $36.7 million and the state colleges received 23.1 million.

Scholarships

The budget provided $1.5 million in additional scholarships to the UVM, the state colleges and the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation.

K-12

The Vermont General Assembly passed and the governor signed a law that would erase a state-imposed limit that allows only 50% of 3- and 4-year-olds in Vermont school districts to enroll in pre-K. Proponents say lifting the cap will lead to reduced costs for special-education programs.

Carolyn Morwick is a consultant at NEBHE and former director of the Caucus of New England State Legislatures.