At the beginning of this academic year, all athletes at Swarthmore College were required to sign a new Transgender Policy Acknowledgement Form, confirming compliance with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) updated Participation Policy for Transgender Student-Athletes. The February 2025 policy, which supersedes all prior NCAA guidelines, bars student-athletes assigned male at birth from competing on a women’s team in NCAA events.
The policy also restricts participation for athletes assigned female at birth who have begun hormone therapy, like testosterone. If such competition occurs, the team will be considered a mixed team and is ineligible for women’s competitions. Athletes of any gender identity may still compete on men’s teams.
The NCAA policy change followed an executive order from President Trump early last year called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which threatens to withdraw federal funding from schools that do not comply. It departs from earlier NCAA rules in a few ways.
In 2010, the NCAA established its first policy for transgender athletes, allowing transgender women to compete after completing one year of testosterone suppression treatment. However, the team would then be considered mixed. A 2022 revision shifted to a sport-by-sport approach aligned with the U.S. Olympic policy, leaving participation decisions to each sport’s national governing body.
Under the new 2025 policy, athletes assigned male at birth are no longer eligible to compete on women’s teams, even if they completed the one-year of hormone therapy required in the 2010 policy. Additionally, any women’s team that includes a transgender woman and is therefore classified as a mixed team is ineligible for women’s competition at any level, including scrimmages, regular-season games, and postseason events.
The policy states that colleges are responsible for certifying student-athlete eligibility for all practices and competitions.
This year’s college policy change comes as there is an active lawsuit against the college brought by Evie Parts ’25, a former track and cross-country runner. Parts is suing the college, including Head Cross Country and Track Coach Peter Carroll, Associate Director of Athletics Valerie Gómez, Marian Ware Director of Athletics Brad Koch, and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Diversity and Inclusion Christina Epps-Chiazor, and the NCAA, for removing her from the track team in the spring. Her case seeks damages on the basis that Swarthmore’s policy banning transgender athletes from competing violates Title IX.
In a recent court filing, the college requested that the action be dismissed, arguing that Swarthmore is “not on notice” to provide Title IX protections for gender identity.
Some athletes at Swarthmore are not surprised that the college complied with the policy.
Joe Fox ’27, who competes on the women’s swim team, said that the policy has gone largely unnoticed. For most athletes, they said, it was just another form to sign along with the rest.
Fox says they understand the college’s predicament. If it didn’t comply, no athletes would be able to compete in NCAA events. One of their concerns about the policy, however, was the college’s lack of acknowledgement.
“At the bare minimum, there could have been a notice to students,” Fox said. For transgender athletes, or athletes considering transitioning, they said the college should have offered support services to help students navigate this process under the new policy.
“Just because it’s there and you can’t change it, doesn’t mean you have to turn around, close your eyes, and plug your ears.”
Morgan McErlean ’26, a women’s track and cross country runner, is surprised that, as a team and athletics culture at a progressive school, many student athletes haven’t talked about it. McErlean said there’s more support for her former teammate, Parts, and for her decision to sue the college than outcry over the policy that removed her from the team.
“It is active discrimination,” McErlean said. “It is something that severely impacted her and she has every right to want to sue the institution on the whole and the athletics department more specifically.”
Rebekah Gendler ’28, a women’s track team member, was surprised to see this form in her paperwork. “Even just by the title, I said, ‘Are we acknowledging that transgender individuals exist?’”
Gendler also said there were no conversations amongst her team about the new policy. She feels that there is more the college can do to support its transgender athletes but also more that the students can do.
“We all need to be a little bit better and look at who we are really protecting when we’re doing [signing] this, because we all want to compete,” she continued, “But I think there is a broader scope that needs to be looked at in terms of what it looks like to be a student-athlete on a campus where protest is important and where speaking out is a value.”
