ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Lede
In the end, six years of litigation came down to one vote.
The potential obstacles - especially more lawsuits and the need for hundreds of millions of dollars - proved too much for those who fervently hoped to take Virginia Military Institute private and keep it all-male.
In a 9-8 vote Saturday, the VMI Board of Visitors agreed to admit women in the fall of 1997.
But VMI officials said that is just about all that will change.
"Female cadets will be treated precisely as we treat male cadets," VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said. "I believe fully qualified women would themselves feel demeaned by any relaxation in the standards the VMI system imposes on young men."
VMI says it will change neither physical requirements nor the boot camp-style "rat line" when women arrive. Women will get a "buzz cut," and both sexes will draw half-shades when they are changing clothes in the barracks they'll share. The barracks doors will remain without locks.
VMI is leaning heavily on the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 7-1 in June that VMI's all-male admissions policy was unconstitutional. "VMI's implementing methodology is not inherently unsuitable to women," the court said.
Board president Bill Berry of Richmond quoted the court as he said, "Some women do well under the adversative model," that "some women, at least, would want to attend VMI if they had the opportunity" and that "some women are capable of all of the individual activities required of VMI cadets ... and can meet the physical standards VMI now imposes on men."
The board's decision came nearly three months after the Supreme Court ruling and two months after the board announced it would spend the rest of the summer studying its options. The board looked into coeducation while alumni organizations studied going private. Friday, alumni mounted a final effort to convince the board to keep the school all-male. They converged on the single hour of open public comment during the board's deliberations.
Berry, however, said his correspondence has run about 50-50 between private and coed. Among those siding with coeducation was Cabell Brand, a 1944 VMI graduate whose ancestors include five cadets killed at the famed Civil War Battle of New Market.
"It should have been 17-0," said Brand, of Salem. "It's ridiculous they took so long, and they're doing it grudgingly."
Roanoke lawyer Marshall Mundy, class of '56, concurred. "We made the right choice, and it's time to join the 20th Century before it's over.
"As a lawyer, I have read very carefully and clearly understand the force of the Supreme Court decision."
But the board said it needed time to study the ruling and the school's options.
"This is not a decision we made easily, but we shall welcome the women who come here ready to meet the rigorous challenges that produce the nation's finest citizen-soldiers," Berry said at the news conference that followed the board vote. "I am resolute about VMI's future and its ability to meet this new test of its inherent greatness."
Applications have already been mailed to the 80 women who've inquired about the program. The school expects to be back in U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser's Roanoke courtroom soon so Kiser can oversee the Supreme Court's order. Bunting said the school wants to "preserve our own autonomy as we go forward" and will ask Kiser to "trust in the professionalism and integrity of the administration of VMI to implement [plans]. In other words, trust us."
The U.S. Department of Justice, which first sued VMI over its admissions policy in 1990, praised the board's decision. But the department, which just last week asked for an injunction to force VMI to send applications to women, promises to remain in the picture.
"We trust the school will now begin encouraging and accepting applications from women looking to enroll in next year's entering class," Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick said in a statement. "We will work with school officials to ensure that women are successfully integrated into VMI, as they have been in the military academies for many years."
The board probably was closely divided all summer, Bunting said. One member, Maj. Gen. Carroll Thackston of South Boston, said he was "particularly torn." He made it clear that when he cast his vote to admit women, he voted in his federal capacity as head of the state's National Guard rather than as an alumnus. The National Guard gets many of its officers from ROTC, and VMI could have lost its program if it had gone private.
Given all the hurdles to going private, one longtime observer of the case said he was surprised by the close vote.
"I guess I thought it was going to be a little more lopsided," said A.E. Dick Howard, a University of Virginia law professor. "It shows the depth and strength of feeling among many in VMI's family."
Five of the eight board members who voted against coeducation held an impromptu news conference following the official statement from the school, saying they believe VMI will be "fundamentally changed in such a way that neither men nor women" will gain from the mental and physical stress of the military program.
Anita Blair, an attorney from Northern Virginia who sits on the board, said making VMI a coed public school is a "poor use of Virginia's educational resources." It will lose its ``distinctive, attractive educational niche,'' she said, and only a small number of women are likely to attend.
A private VMI would have needed an estimated $200 million endowment to replace $10.3 million in state funds - one-third of annual operating costs - each year. The cost to buy the campus and buildings has been estimated at more than $200 million, but, as board member Sam Witt said, the purchase price is "a political number." The General Assembly would have had to approve the sale of the school.
Recruiting qualified female students is the next step, but Bunting said there is no set plan. The Citadel, which admitted four women this fall in response to the Supreme Court ruling, has a 53-point plan for coeducation, dealing with everything from pregnant cadets to sexual harassment and staff sensitivity training.
Asked about concern over potential sexual harassment problems, Bunting replied, "I certainly anticipate we will look hard at that issue, [but] it's far too early in the process."
Meantime, the "VMI family," as it calls itself, is divided, but calls for healing rang out across the post Saturday. One alumnus extended a $10 million olive branch to coeducation with an anonymous endowment for 40 full scholarships to draw top students from Virginia and around the country.
But the class of '71, which celebrates its 25th reunion next weekend, is far from its admittedly ambitious $5 million fund-raising goal set last March, VMI Alumni Association President Steve Fogleman said. At the moment, its giving stands at about $1 million.
However, Fogleman, Blair and the other proponents of going private all said they'll stand behind Saturday's vote.
Staff writers Greg Edwards and Betty Hayden Snider contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. VMI alumnus Frank Trice reacts toby CNBnews of the board's vote. "It's the saddest thing I've ever seen I'm
very disappointed," he said. He graduated from VMI in 1986. color.
Graphic: Chart. KEYWORDS: MGR