Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270310
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE SHENANDOAH BUREAU
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Every VMI alumnus must resist the urge to `speak out,' because by so doing we might play into the hands of Knapp those who would have this become a shrill and meaningless shouting match," reads the March 13 letter. "The institute will use every appropriate method to assure that the public fully understands the facts."
The letter goes on to state the school's position on the coeducation issue for alumni who find themselves talking about it with "friends, neighbors and colleagues."
It also notes that the privately funded VMI Foundation has hired a public relations firm to work with VMI. School officials later identified the firm as Hill and Knowlton Inc., a New York public relations company that is one of country's largest.
Addressed to "all alumni," the letter is signed by Knapp.
School officials said the caution against "speaking out" was not meant to keep alumni mum on the coeducation issue. "It's a letter simply to bring them up to date," Knapp said. "Nothing sinister intended at all."
Asked if it was intended to keep alumni quiet, the superintendent said "Absolutely not."
" `Speak out' in this sense is to start an argument about admitting women," said VMI spokesman Tom Joynes. "He's not telling them they can't talk. The idea of sending this letter is to inform them exactly what the facts of the case are, and what our defense is."
Joynes and Edwin Dooley, Knapp's special assistant, both said they had heard no negative reaction from alumni about the letter.
"I think they would probably say, `That's good. Things are in good hands and let's leave it that way,' " Dooley speculated.
A quick sampling of VMI alumni Monday night found none willing to discuss the letter.
Previously, the school sent letters to VMI employees, saying they could speak their minds on the issue of women so long as they made it clear they were expressing their own opinions.
Several faculty members have been outspoken in support of admitting women to the corps of cadets. A recent poll of the VMI faculty found a majority of those who responded favored admitting women.
But the March 13 letter from Knapp - which Joynes said was mailed to some 11,000 VMI alumni - was clearly sent to a different audience. School officials said it was drafted at the request of numerous calls from alumni asking about the coeducation controversy, which has kept VMI in the national spotlight for weeks.
The letter appeared to use harder language than VMI's more formal responses to the U.S. Justice Department's directive to begin admitting women.
At one point, Knapp writes, "We believe the Department of Justice is wrong and we intend to fight."
And at another: "The Department of Justice's lawsuit is not merely an attack on VMI. It is a federal attack on Virginia's system of higher education, a system that offers a richly diversified and balanced selection of some 45 systems of higher education."
Dooley said the letter wasn't meant as a call to arms.
"I don't think anybody conjured up pictures of blue-coated Northern troops attacking the institute again," he said, when asked if the "federal attack" was meant to paint the issue in terms of North and South. "I don't think there's much to be read into that."
VMI was shelled and burned by Union troops June 12, 1864.
Knapp, when asked about the word "attack," said, "I think you may be reading too much into that. When you're sued in court, it's usually an attack, isn't it?"
He said the wording was "not intended to be confrontational."
School officials also said the public relations firm mentioned in Knapp's letter is meant to help the school use all the attention it is getting to its advantage.
by CNB