Website updates change visibility of admission policies
Updates to the CSB+SJU website have resulted in the removal of the transgender and non-binary student admission policy from public view. The policy related to transgender students was approved in 2016 with a recent amendment in 2023 to expand its inclusivity.
In July 2023, CSB+SJU instituted a new admissions policy that allows genderfluid or non-binary students to attend either institution, expanding the existing transgender student admission policy on the institution’s website.
Now, this information is no longer on the website.
Previously, the transgender student admission policy could be found on the CSB+SJU website by going to “About CSB+SJU,” then to the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice” page. The policy was found under the “Actions” heading among a list of 12.
Currently, the transgender student admission policy cannot be located on the website. On the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice” page of the CSB+SJU website, there is a link to “Archive of Reflections and Actions.” Here, there is a list of actions identical to the previous list, except it only has 11 actions; the transgender student admission policy is no longer listed.
The established admission policies around transgender students evolved from a decision made by both boards of trustees and both student Senates. In 2016, they approved a policy that would allow transgender men to attend SJU and transgender women to attend CSB, as shown in a preserved version of the CSB+SJU website accessible via The Wayback Machine, an internet archive service.
Both the Inside Higher Ed and The National Catholic Register covered the news of the non-binary admission policy in 2023, but the links to the CSB+SJU policy within the articles now bring users to “404 page not found.”
“Many institutional policies, including this one, are not publicly posted,” Michael Hemmesch, director of public relations at CSB+SJU, said via email. Edward Lamm, Chief Admissions and Strategic Enrollment Officer, responded similarly. Hemmesch did not respond to further requests for comment.
The removal of the admission policy has caused frustration for the student coordinators of Queer Proud Lavender Union for Students (Q+).
“[We] have been redirected to multiple departments on campus, all giving us answers that contradict each other,” Alias Bachmeier, CSB senior and Q+ student coordinator, said via email. “[We] have been told that the school is working on putting up the policies diligently, but it has been months.”
CSB+SJU are among Catholic institutions of higher learning that are continuing to wrestle with institutional identities and changing understandings of gender.
“[The non-binary student admission policy] reflects our Benedictine value of respecting the dignity of all people,” Hemmesch said in an interview with Inside Higher Ed from August 2023.
However, Q+ student coordinators felt the non-binary student admission policy did not improve life for these individuals on campus.
“Adding this policy back to the website is only the first step toward being an inclusive and welcoming institution for [all] individuals,” Bachmeier said via email.
On Feb. 13, “Power, Policy, and Impact: Making Sense of Recent Executive Orders” was hosted at the Multicultural Center, and the whereabouts of the CSB+SJU transgender, nonbinary and genderfluid admission policy were hinted at.
During the question-and-answer portion of the evening, Senior Diversity Officer Sandra Mitchell was asked why the policy was removed from the CSB+SJU website. She responded that the restoration of the policy online was a work in progress.
“Right now, we’re working on getting it back on the site,” Mitchell said. “I think there’s often a lot of confusion about [the policy] being taken down because we’re hiding a process. That is not a process policy; it is an admissions policy.”