Tulane closed Newcomb College as a cost-cutting measure after Hurricane Katrina, but the great-great-great niece of its founder Josephine Louis Newcomb sued. She argued that closing the college — which was a model for other women's coordinate colleges like Barnard — violated Josephine Newcomb's will. But a judge decided that the will "contains no enforceable conditional obligation to support the plaintiff's claim" — thus, the college can stay closed.

The news came just as the Washington Monthly released its unconventional college rankings. These rankings aim to convey "what colleges are doing for the country," measured by "social mobility, research, and service." The magazine's editors explain,

In our eyes, America's best colleges are those that work hardest to help economically disadvantaged students earn the credentials that the job market demands. They're the institutions that contribute new scientific discoveries and highly trained PhDs. They're the colleges that emphasize the obligations students have to serve their communities and the nation at large.

As it turns out, women's colleges "play an outsized role in contributing to the public good." Though only about fifty still exist, four of them made the Washington Monthly's top 10 liberal arts colleges. This should be no surprise, since according to Jessica Calefati of US News & World Report (source of those other college rankings), women's colleges "are among the country's more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse liberal arts colleges, offering generous financial aid packages." Calefati adds,

Just as women's colleges originally were founded because women couldn't go to college elsewhere, many of today's women's colleges are surviving-and thriving-by educating specific populations of women who are still underserved.

But Calefati also notes that more and more women's colleges are closing or going coed. Wells College in Aurora, NY began admitting men in 2005, and some students saw a difference immediately. "Women are waking up early to put on makeup, and that's odd," said then-senior Sarah Alexander. The status of women's colleges as champions of the underrepresented and promoters of diversity may be under threat.

The Washington Monthly ranks Tulane 70th out of 258 national universities. In a blog post on the rankings, the Times's Tamar Lewin asks,

What would the world be like if college presidents worked as hard to improve their Washington Monthly rankings as they now do to keep up their U.S. News ranking?

Guess Tulane isn't itching to find out.

Judge Rules In Tulane's Favor; Women's College To Stay Closed [US News & World Report]
Rating Colleges By Their Contribution To The Social Good [NYT]
Introduction: A Different Kind of College Ranking [Washington Monthly]

But this joyous occasion did not come without a price. In a personal essay in the Advocate, Thomas writes about all of the prejudice he faced when trying to find adequate medical care. One doctor, "after a $300 consultation, reluctantly performed my initial checkups. He then required us to see the clinic's psychologist to see if we were fit to bring a child into this world and consulted with the ethics board of his hospital. A few months and a couple thousand dollars later, he told us that he would no longer treat us, saying he and his staff felt uncomfortable working with 'someone like me.'" Even Thomas's own brother was unkind, telling Thomas after his first pregnancy turned out ectopic, "It's a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been."

Thomas isn't the only transmale facing difficulties. In last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, there was a story about the opposition transmen are facing at women's colleges. The piece profiled Rey, a college freshman who started his university career at Barnard, only to transfer to Columbia because of the number of issues he faced. According to writer Alissa Quart, Rey is not alone in his alienation: "Many trans students feel themselves to be excluded or isolated at women's schools and at coed colleges. Some talk of being razzed or insulted by fellow students." But Quart also discusses the question of how colleges meant for women are supposed to serve people who no longer identify as women in the first place.

Will society ever be able to accommodate all the facets of the gender spectrum? Or will cases like Thomas's and Rey's always be a struggle for acceptance and personal freedom?

Labor Of Love [The Advocate]
When Girls Will Be Boys [New York Times]