Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990 TAG: 9003300865
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Long
"The state's policy of educational diversity is now being tested, and while we cannot predict the outcome of that challenge, we do believe that diversification is justifiable and proper," Knapp, 57, said in his inaugural address.
"Whatever the outcome, VMI will continue to blend the best of a rich tradition with a forward-looking vision. It will endure. Of that I am certain," he said.
On March 1, the Justice Department filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Roanoke arguing that the state-supported school's admissions policy violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment.
But state Attorney General Mary Sue Terry contends that the admissions policy is constitutional and that opening VMI to women would narrow the diversity of Virginia's system of higher education.
Words such as tradition, honor, excellence, leadership - even freedom - punctuated the hour-long inauguration ceremony, which included state Secretary of Education James Dyke and Ronald Carrier, president of James Madison University.
Knapp's remarks, which he said had been "passed through a number of people to see I didn't say anything dangerous," were interrupted only once, when he alluded to an editorial in Thursday's Roanoke Times & World-News.
The newspaper chastised Knapp for writing a letter to some 11,000 alumni in which he asked them to "resist the urge to speak out" on the prospect of the school's going coed. "By doing so, we would play into the hands of those who would have this become a shrill and meaningless shouting match," he told the graduates across the country.
"I certainly don't want to give any more opportunities to local editors to misconstrue my words," he said, smiling as many in the audience applauded and cheered. "I want to go on to the approved parts [of the speech]."
Knapp's inauguration came nine months after he was chosen superintendent and 15 months after he took over as acting superintendent. It also marks the first time a faculty member has become superintendent since Lt. Gen. Edward Nichols in 1907.
A steady rain dampened the proceedings, but didn't seem to deter the nattily dressed guests who made their way, umbrellas in hand, to Cameron Hall. Some 1,200 hatless cadets sported their white cotton summer trousers and formal gray wool coatees, festooned with 42 buttons and black woven braiding.
The traditional formal corps parade, scheduled for earlier in the morning, was canceled. So were morning classes, though cadets returned to their normal Thursday afternoon schedules after lunch.
Dignitaries and friends, defenders and critics of VMI watched as Joseph Spivey, president of the board of visitors, symbolically handed Knapp the brown metal key to the school's arsenal. There, on the stage, was tiny Virginia Williams, the superintendent's first-grade teacher from Richmond. Two of Knapp's predecessors - Lt. Gen. George Shell and Lt. Gen. Richard Irby - were there, too.
R. Claire Guthrie, the state deputy attorney general defending the school's admissions policy, sat among the spectators. And then there was state Sen. Emilie Miller, the Fairfax Democrat who has waged her own campaign against the single-sex policy.
"What struck me as I was listening to all the speeches, [was that] they emphasized leadership and training leaders for the 21st century. Women have to be the leaders of the 21st century because only 16 percent of the work force is going to be white males," she said.
"So the mission of this school is a mission that can be translated into a mission for women as well as men. Nobody's proven to me that women can't be leaders and can't be a part of the mission of this school."
Earlier this year, Miller proposed legislation that would have made it illegal for any state-supported school in Virginia to deny admission to any qualified state resident. The bill died in committee, ironically the one chaired by Sen. Elmon Gray, D-Waverly - the sole VMI alumnus currently serving in the General Assembly.
Miller said Thursday that Knapp's inauguration offered her a prime opportunity to visit the school for the first time, and an "opportunity to show them that I harbor no ill feelings for VMI."
"My bill, and all I've been trying to do, is [to] show the state that we cannot use taxpayers' dollars to discriminate," she said. "I did not pick this fight. To me it's not a fight. To me it's a discussion of discrimination and a discussion of educating women."
For his part, Knapp said after the ceremony that he was "flattered" Miller had decided to make the drive from Northern Virginia to see the school for herself, and expressed hope she would return so he could give her a personal tour.
Knapp is a compact, well-proportioned man whose square jaw and crisply decisive voice attest to his 35-year career in the Army Reserve and at VMI.
The son of a 1921 VMI alumnus, Knapp graduated from his father's alma mater in 1954. After finishing undergraduate school he served 3 1/2 years in the military and worked for a concrete and pipe company in Richmond before returning to Lexington and an appointment in the civil engineering department.
In 1962 he earned a master's degree, and three years later a doctorate, from Johns Hopkins University. A year later, Knapp became chair of the civil engineering department, a post he held twice. He was named dean of the faculty in 1984 and acting superintendent Jan. 1 last year.
by CNB