On Thursday, April 10, at the annual Celebrations event, the organizers referenced Smith’s recent announcement that they are complying with the NCAA Transgender Athlete Ban. The organizers stated that Smith has a responsibility to either pull out of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or refuse to comply with the policy in protest, demands that were met with cheers from the crowd.
The NCAA policy was announced on Feb. 6, 2025, but Smith did not officially announce that the institution was complying until April 4, 2025, despite the fact that the policy went into effect immediately and Athletics had already announced that they would have to comply to maintain NCAA status. Transgender and non-binary athletes already had conversations with coaching staff and were pulled from competition if they had been assigned male at birth (AMAB) and therefore ineligible to compete.
I spoke with an anonymous Smith athlete who identifies as non-binary on their opinions on the policy and Smith’s response. After the Celebrations statement, they stated, “It didn’t necessarily make me feel more supported […] I don’t see the point in dividing ourselves. I choose to believe that [Smith Athletics] has our backs.”
They stated that Smith Athletics has supported them in their identity throughout their career. “I’ve always felt very supported by the team and the coaching staff. People are really good about pronouns here. People are helpful in correcting coaches when they slip up […] Even when folks do mess up, I know that the overall community has my back.”
While they don’t fear for their own safety, they expressed fear for trans women and trans athletes of color. “I think I would be okay as someone who could pass as a cis person,” they said. “I think also as a white person, I have all the privilege and I think I would have a lot of protection – I know that Smith would have my back. I think I worry more about trans women specifically and how Smith taking a stand could impact them.”
The Celebrations speech prompted a series of posters around campus reading “Trans Athletes belong in NCAA competition. We will always stand with you,” raising awareness amongst the non-athlete student body on this issue. Recent posts on the Smith Confessional (Confesh) have debated how Smith should respond to the policy.
“Trans women belong in women’s sports, no question,” said one commenter. “But the announcement at Celebrations last night and the discourse on here is a lowkey dangerous oversimplification of what is going on and just feels uninformed […] Scrutiny from not complying with the order would put all trans women at Smith at risk, not just athletes, as well as international students who are at risk of being deported or losing their documentation.”
Another user replied, “It’s better to speak out against the ban instead of using the excuse of ‘its protecting the students from becoming targets.’ We are already targets, don’t you realize this?”
But what would pulling out of the NCAA or not complying with their policies actually mean for Smith?
I myself have been on teams with transgender athletes and wholly understand the immense value that those individuals bring to a team – not only on an athletic level, but also on an interpersonal level. These people are not a statistic. They are not a collection of hormone levels. They are not villains attempting to infiltrate women’s sports. They are my teammates and my friends.
They are the people I spend upwards of 40 hours a week with. They have held my hand through bad races, broken bones and self-doubt, proving they believe in me no matter what. Being a collegiate athlete is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, which is a direct result of the friendship and support of all of my teammates, regardless of their identities.
Competition is obviously a large part of the collegiate athlete experience, but pulling out of the NCAA would eliminate all opportunities for any athlete, including at the club sport level. According to Athletic Director Kristen Hughes, staying in the NCAA “permits a trans woman to still be a member of a team and to still be able to travel. It is still an athletic experience that could happen, similar to someone on a team that doesn’t get a lot of time in a game.”
According to Hughes, “If we pulled out of the NCAA, it would really just be the end of athletics. There is no other school at least to date that has done that.”
This decision would also have implications beyond all athletes losing the opportunity to compete. Hughes said, “I imagine honestly the school would lay all of us off […] That would be the end of competitive athletics for all of our student-athletes.”
Smith Athletics employs 36 staff members, including administration, head and assistant coaches, communications staff and athletic trainers, as well as 19 graduate-assistant coaches who gain coaching experience through the Exercise and Sports Science (ESS) graduate program. Smith pulling out of the NCAA would mean the elimination of the entire department and its graduate program.
Additionally, the NCAA provides many benefits to Smith, many of which are still available to transgender athletes. “They’re essentially able to have every experience except competing in the game or match or meet. They are able to have a community of teammates. We think there is a lot of value in that,” Hughes said.
Although this is a painful and unfair reduction of their opportunities, I still believe that there is a great value in being a part of a team. Allowing trans women to continue to be included in the athletic community itself gives them a support system and greater agency. They are still able to help their team grow during practice, cheer them on during competition and have influence in team decisions and discussions. It is not at all sufficient, but is the unfortunate reality that at this current moment, trans women are either able to have this lessened experience or they will be excluded from sports altogether.
I do not believe Smith students or student-athletes should bow down to the Trump administration and its hateful, dehumanizing rhetoric. We should not blindly follow and support the NCAA when it has historically failed not only transgender athletes, but also sexual assault and abuse survivors, female athletes and athletes of color.
I also do not want my friends and teammates to be targeted for their identity when they are so much more than hormones and chromosomes. I believe we can understand the reality that Smith is subject to NCAA regulations and must comply in order to maintain people’s jobs and safety, and still resist the underlying message of this policy.
I also believe that while it is critical to center the wants and needs of transgender athletes in our response to this policy, it is also the responsibility of cisgender staff and athletes to be at the forefront of this advocacy. Transgender and non-binary athletes are already enduring backlash to the hateful myth that they are threatening the integrity of women’s sports. Many are forced to compete in binary categories that can be invalidating and dysphoric.
It is the responsibility of cisgender athletes, coaches and spectators to use correct names and pronouns for every athlete and to correct officials when they get them wrong at competitions. It is our responsibility to learn about the risks of the policy for transgender athletes and to attempt to shield them from targeting.
We must educate ourselves on NCAA-compliant gender affirming care and understand how the lack of gender-affirming care options for athletes choosing to comply can impact their mental health. We must consistently check in on our transgender teammates and ask them how we can be better teammates and friends during this time.
I believe that building a better community that serves all of its members should be the focus of Smith students’ demands, not automatically assuming that the administration is out to get us. I encourage those interested in this policy and its effects specifically to learn as much as possible about what the specifics of the policy are and what transgender athletes want moving forward.
As a Division III school, Smith does not provide athletic scholarships, but this does not mean that eradicating the athletic department would have minimal effects on our institution. In light of the recent Supreme Court affirmative action decision, recruiting athletes from diverse communities is one of the only remaining avenues for Smith to continue to curate a diverse student body.
Hughes said, “Despite all of this, our coaches are really aware of the value of having diversity and representation. They are just trying to go after the best students academically and in athletic performance.” She added that coaches will continue to recruit transgender athletes for practice rosters or team manager positions with the hope that they can begin competing if the policy changes in the future.
Post-season competitions are completely funded by the NCAA — meaning that basketball, volleyball, cross country and track all utilized NCAA funds to travel to national competitions this academic year.
Student-led organizations like the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) fall under the NCAA umbrella. The NEWMAC also has student representatives. “It gives us a legislative voice, which is how we create change,” Hughes said. “If we’re not in those conversations, we have zero impact […] Staying in the mess of this is how we think we can be more helpful.”
Pulling out of the NCAA may appear initially like a powerful method of protest, but in reality it would likely eliminate any opportunities for us to voice opposition from the inside of the organization. According to Hughes, “Even if we drop out of the NCAA, that doesn’t create an [athletic] experience for trans women.”
“The big thing for everyone to understand is that the NCAA changed their policy because of the executive order. Even if we pulled out of the NCAA, we would still be under the executive order and in violation of that if we chose to not follow it. And that could impact federal funding, research money and other things more broadly across our campus.” said Hughes.
Smith teams and athletes could be publicly targeted if Smith doesn’t comply. The NCAA has a vague penalty policy that leaves many questions about how much power they have over institutions. They state, “Penalties should be sufficient to deter an institution from breaking the rules again […] Some penalties, such as public reprimand and censure, are commonplace.”
“If you pull out of the NCAA, that is going to draw a lot of attention. If you stay in the NCAA but you’re in violation of the policy, that is going to draw a lot of attention. And when attention gets drawn, they’re not going to come for Jess and I,” Hughes said. “They’re going to find the student-athletes that this impacts the most and can be the most hurt.”
Universities and schools that do not comply have real consequences as the line between NCAA penalties and Trump Administration punishments becomes blurry. Currently, the University of Pennsylvania and Maine public schools are facing the threat of collectively losing over 424 million dollars in federal funding for violating Trump’s executive order. This money is not used just for athletics, but for all facets of these educational institutions.
This kind of media coverage causes safety concerns for vulnerable members of the student population. Schools like Ithaca College and University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) are experiencing this targeting firsthand–a trans woman on Ithaca’s crew team is being followed by Right Wing media groups, while UMass’ international students are facing their student visas being revoked and subsequent deportation.
All of this is not to say that transgender athletes are not worth these risks or that it isn’t important to resist the human rights violations and censorship coming from the federal government. But Advocacy 101 also requires activists to know the implications of their demands, what is realistic for the administration or institution to compromise on and the desires of the community they are attempting to serve.
Assistant Athletic Director Jess Duff encourages students to meet with the athletic department administration to learn more and brainstorm creative solutions. “If people across campus have questions about what this means and the impact that athletics has on this campus, I think that they should come to the source,” she said. “[Kristen and I] know the impact that athletics has on this campus and I think both of us could talk about it forever.”
Additionally, Smith’s Sport Committee for Inclusion and Diversity (SCID) is hosting a conversation with Cal Calamia, the first winner of the non-binary category in the Tokyo and San Francisco marathons, on Monday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium. The event is open to all Smith students and is another opportunity to hear how students can be better allies to transgender athletes.
I hope that the Smith community can continue to have conversations on this policy moving forward, but that these conversations become more centered on how to best support our transgender community, so we can more effectively target the discriminatory policies we’re facing rather than targeting each other.
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