THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608100013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 29 lines
Regarding Pam Floyd's letter (``Fight back,'' July 10): I offer two points of correction/clarification.
First, the correct name of the Lynchburg college to which Ms. Floyd referred is Randolph-Mason Woman's College. The ``key word,'' as Ms. Floyd described it, is not ``women's'' but the singular noun woman because R-MWC believes in the education of each student as an individual.
Second, at one time Virginia had many colleges for women, including Mary Washington, Longwood, Radford. These schools, public institutions of higher learning, are now co-educational.
VMI is the last public single-sex college in the commonwealth. R-MWC and the few other single-sex colleges which remain in Virginia are and always have been private. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision was not based on the validity of single-sex education but on the issue of equal opportunity at an institution supported, maintained and funded as a public college.
To me, the ``key word'' in this ongoing debate is ``public.'' I, too, believe in equal rights, which is one reason that I also support single-sex education as one option of many for college-bound students. The question is, ``Who's paying for it?''
JANIS G. ANSELL
Virginia Beach, July 10, 1996 by CNB