Fellow Smithies (Students, Alumni, Staff, Faculty, and Administrators),

We all want to believe in the Smith College that was promised to us—an institution that champions equity, challenges the status quo, and fiercely protects its own. In 2015, we laid down a marker for inclusivity. But hope and historical promises are no longer enough to keep us safe.

As we speak, we are witnessing a quiet, dangerous betrayal of the trans community by Smith’s administration. Last year when Smith quietly adopted discriminatory NCAA rules, they didn't just update a policy; they bent the knee. They showed us they are willing to play a game where the rules are designed to exclude us.

By prioritizing federal compliance over human lives, they are proving that our sanctuary is conditional. So I have to ask: Why are we still playing?

Why should we beg for a seat at a table that doesn't want us? Why limit ourselves to saying trans women belong at Smith, when we have the power to stop playing this rigged game entirely? It is time to step fully into our potential and withdraw from federal funding and the NCAA.

If the administration claims we "cannot afford" to take this stand, they are hiding behind a myth. Let’s look at the reality: Smith sits on an endowment and asset pool of roughly $6.4 billion. We are not a struggling college forced to sell out its values to keep the lights on. We have the absolute financial freedom to function as a fiercely independent institution. Not just that, our financial power must also be deployed to guarantee a baseline of zero-cost attendance—including tuition, housing, and food—for our marginalized and low-income students. 

For students from higher financial backgrounds, we implement a sliding scale in solidarity. These families will pay a proportional contribution, but this money will no longer vanish into an opaque administrative general fund. Instead, these contributions must be strictly ring-fenced to directly fund the living stipends, trans healthcare access, and physical sanctuary infrastructure for our most vulnerable peers. This is the only moral path forward. We must stop hoarding institutional wealth and require those with generational resources to directly subsidize the survival of the community. No trans, non-binary, or low-income student should ever be priced out of their own safety.

Of course, there are those who worry about "prestige" or athletic reputation. I regret to tell them that trading student safety and wellbeing for corporate approval has already ruined that reputation for many of us.

We don’t need federal funding or the NCAA. We can build something better. With our immense resources, Smith could spearhead a grassroots athletic league alongside other progressive New England schools. We can pioneer a cooperative academic and athletic framework where no one is forced to compromise their humanity to compete. We have the capital to be a beacon; instead, we are choosing to be a follower.

Let us not forget history. The administration dragged its feet for two years before finally admitting trans women in 2015. They have already given ground to the NCAA. If we do not draw a hard line right now, they will surrender the entire trans student body to federal overreach.

Our support—our tuition, our alumni donations, our labor, and our pride—must be strictly contingent on Smith acting like the sanctuary it claims to be. We must demand they protect every trans and non-binary student and fight these mandates to the absolute end.

I feel this urgency in my bones. I transitioned at Smith in 2014, and I know exactly what is at stake. If we bow to the government's "biological sex" mandate, Smith isn't just failing to protect trans women. It risks reverting our entire lives—campus records, housing, and intimate spaces—to a strict, birth-assigned binary. This would effectively erase all trans students, including trans men and non-binary people who have been part of the vital, beating heart of our community for decades, placing their livelihoods and safety in severe jeopardy.

We are at a crossroads. We can watch our community be erased, policy by policy, or we can demand that Smith use its staggering wealth to protect its people.

We are demanding independence. We are demanding true sanctuary. Let us build the institution we actually deserve.

If you believe in a truly independent and fiercely inclusive future for this college, please add your name. We need every voice to show the administration that we will not back down.

In Solidarity,

Beck Worrell (he/they)

Smith 2012 — 2019J