Transgender community members at American University are left uncertain if the school will protect them in the face of two anti-transgender executive orders from President Donald Trump aimed at universities.
The University is planning to remove all mentions of transgender students from its website to hide identity-related work, Toby Aho, a senior professorial lecturer of critical race, gender and culture studies, who is on the Network of Inclusive Excellence Advisors.
Trump called on the U.S. Department of Education to block K-12 schools receiving federal funding from requiring staff to use names and pronouns that align with transgender students’ gender identity in a Jan. 29 executive order. On Feb. 6, Trump issued another anti-transgender executive order calling for transgender women to be excluded from women’s sports.
American University Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer Vicky Wilkins said in a Feb. 5 Faculty Senate meeting, “For those who are transgender, we’re trying to work through our policies and where we are, making sure we’re offering protection,” to transgender students.
The next day, University President Jonathan Alger sent an email to the AU community outlining the University’s responses to the Trump administration’s actions. The message did not reference whether he would take action to protect transgender AU students.
“It doesn’t shock me when University officials send out messages that don’t include trans people, which isn’t right, of course, but that’s just what we expect,” said Gabe Michelangelo, treasurer of Pride at AU, who identifies as transgender.
Some faculty members told The Eagle that even they are in the dark about how AU will respond to Trump’s anti-transgender actions.
Aho met with Vice President of Inclusive Excellence Nkenge Friday on March 3. The University declined to comment on the contents of the meeting with Friday.
“It was really disheartening,” Aho said of the meeting. “I thought in the meeting we would talk more about how we’re going to stand by our trans students, and instead, it was all about complying.”
Aho said they learned in the meeting that the University plans to “remove all mention of trans students from our official public-facing website” and that pages like the Trans Resource Guide will soon only be accessible with an AU account.
“Programs and initiatives that support community members, including transgender community members, are part of our ongoing commitment to supporting a safe, welcoming, and inclusive community,” Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Matt Bennett said in a statement to The Eagle.
The University’s Name and Gender Identity Policy allows students to “provide a chosen name that will be displayed in the place of the legal first name” in places like a student’s diploma. The University also adheres, however, to the NCAA Participation Policy for Transgender Student-Athletes, which states that “a student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team.”
The Athletic Department’s Transgender Inclusion Policy aims to help individuals understand “the NCAA’s rules and regulations for the participation of transgender students in intercollegiate athletics,” according to AU Athletics’ diversity and inclusion website. However, the full text of the policy is not publicly available.
“I’ve talked some more with higher administration about their position, and since their position is to comply with all federal mandates, I’m extremely worried that AU is willing to sacrifice trans students,” Aho said.
Student Government Vice President and Speaker Julia Comino also said she has “not heard from any University official” that they’re willing to stand up to the Trump administration.
“I have asked them at what point they would choose to stop complying,” Aho said. “Is it when the government forces us to use people’s deadnames? I did not get an answer to that.”
Comino worked with AU chapters of survivor advocacy groups No More and It’s On Us to collaborate with the Office of Equity and Title IX last summer on incorporating the Biden regulations into their policies. While Title IX is typically associated with handling sexual assault cases, the law’s main purpose is to prohibit sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
“Communications stopped at the beginning of this fall semester,” Comino said. “Then we were never informed of anything again.”
This comes amid the Department of Education launching investigations into Title IX athletics violations at the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University for allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports, with the promise of reviewing athletic policies at other universities.
“I think that it would be too easy for this administration to play nice to the point that they’re putting students on the line,” Comino said. “And by ‘this administration,’ I mean the Jonathan Alger administration.”
Alger has a background in interpreting Title IX as an attorney for the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.
“I don’t think that the administration has as much courage as the student body does,” Comino said. She said AU’s compliance may be because of the University’s “financially precarious situation,” which could be worsened if Trump pulls federal funding.
The University is facing a $68 million deficit for the 2025 fiscal year, according to a community forum held on Sept. 25, 2024. “Deficit” refers to the negative difference between the University’s proposed spending and earnings for a fiscal year.
“If we want to still be the most progressive campus in D.C., then we have to actively not just protect but defend trans students and stand by trans students,” Aho said.
Dustin Friedman, an associate professor of literature in the College of Arts and Sciences, also called for more support from the University for its transgender students.
“If the University is meant to stand for anything, if the University says that it’s devoted to inclusive excellence, as it says it is, it must take the strongest possible stance supporting its transgender and queer students,” Friedman said.
The University’s LGBTQ+ community is likely concerned about how our administration will respond to any nationwide policy changes lessening protections for transgender students.
“I came here because I got a letter from AU being like, we are a very gay campus,” Comino said. “So if they’re removing that from their branding, then people like me won’t be here.”
This article was edited by Owen Auston-Babcock, Maya Cederlund, Tyler Davis and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Olivia Citarella, Ella Rousseau and Sabine Kanter-Huchting.
