By Na’im Madyun
Recently, our two middle school sons prepared to tryout for traveling basketball (typically the more competitive level of school basketball leagues). We were excited about both the opportunity and possibilities. They were not. One son was trying out for travelling basketball for the first time. He shared with us the enormous gap in experience between him and the number of players he would have to outperform. Those players not only had a proven track record, but also solid relationships with the coaches and each other. The second son was trying out for a travelling basketball team at a grade higher than his own. He expressed concern that in the end the coaches would tell us that trying out was a poor decision and we would ultimately be embarrassed for having taken the risk. There was a noticeable difference between what we expected of their thoughts and emotions before tryouts and what we actually observed. Each son, in his own way asked: As is, am I good enough to fit in?
For years, that’s the question being posed by and imposed upon transgender students as they “tryout” for college. “As is, am I “good” enough to fit in. Am I good enough to find home at College X, or will my expectations of finding place be inconsistent with my actual observations of maladjustment and isolation?” Offices of admissions may privately ask, “How exemplary must a transgender student be before we worry less about fitting in or finding home? Will our expectations of those students finding place become inconsistent with our actual observations of unhealthy social integration and poor progress to degree?”
To answer similar questions of noticeable differences between expectations and observations, scholars have traditionally utilized a Chi-square test to analyze the expectation observation gaps in their research data. Interestingly, the Chi-square test is also called the test for goodness of fit. It examines to what degree our observations are inconsistent with our expectations among identified categories. But what if the very categories we are trying to get students to fit into are no longer valid?
Mount Holyoke followed Mills College in developing a policy for transgender applicants. Why now? I asked this question to the GLBTA office on campus and Director Stef Wilenchek replied by calling the decision ground breaking and one that has been needed for decades. Decades? Given Director Wilenchek’s expertise, I was intrigued by the intentional word choice. Calliope Wong’s rejection from Smith College was just in 2013 and recently TIME acknowledged the transgender fight for equality as the new social movement. I then stumbled across the GLAAD Transgender timeline and became quickly educated. Okay, the struggle for acceptance and equality is not new and it includes a history of noticeable pain, suffering, murder and loss. However, that still does not fully answer why now. Mount Holyoke is as selective and competitive as it was 10 years ago with enrollment numbers higher than ever. Even alumni are asking the question of why now?
“Mount Holyoke is a women’s college, and it should admit women. Period…There are plenty of other places for people who are not women to go, and they should go there” Pamela Adkins, Class of 1979
I then received a note from a member of the University of Minnesota’s Transgender Commission and in it contained the words, “This statement by Holyoke is personally liberating for someone like me, a trans elder who has lived in a country where I have had to hide my trans identity in order to survive”
I reflected on this statement and it reminded me of a promise within the Mount Holyoke policy where a transgender student has the freedom to change their gender identification back to a male without having to withdraw. This policy is not about helping transgender students feel good enough to fit in, but telling them that they belong (to paraphrase Brené Brown ). When you know you belong, you stop questioning fit. What credentials one to judge the worthiness of another to belong in a space of higher education based upon a possible inconsistency between expectations of gender expression and actual observations? How do we rationalize a comfort in challenging and controlling someone else’s capacity for dignity and freedom without confessing a less than human characterization of them? Why do we ask why now instead of asking why so long?
Before the basketball tryouts, I told my sons to no worry about if they are good enough and “to just play ball like you belong…because I know you do.” To what degree have I done or do I “say” that to any student I walk by on this campus. I think I’ll start. What will you do?
Na’im Madyun is the associate dean for undergraduate and diversity programs in the College of Education and Human Development.
