Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991 TAG: 9104090370
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Attorneys had indicated early that they would draw parallels between West Point and VMI during a trial that challenges the constitutionality of VMI's all-male tradition. The trial began Thursday and continues this week in U.S. District Court.
Col. Patrick Toffler, who graduated from West Point in 1968 and returned to direct institutional research, said he was "struck by the fact that so little had changed" since women were admitted.
"The only thing that was remarkable that one could have noticed was the fact that women were there," said Toffler, the last witness to be called by the government. And after a time, that became less noticeable, too, he said.
The academy first admitted women under a congressional order in 1976, and today, about 10 percent of its cadets are female. VMI, a state-supported school in Lexington, still maintains a 152-year-old all-male admissions policy.
"The integration of women has been successfully accomplished," Toffler said, adding that they had been accepted by their male peers.
But under a lengthy cross-examination, Toffler said there is a perception among some cadets that integration was a failure. About 54 percent of the women said in a 1990 survey that integration was not a success.
Toffler also said some cadets did not feel they were being treated as equals.
It is the equality issue that strikes a chord deep within VMI alumni and staff members. The school's attorneys say admitting women to VMI will destroy it - and destroy the idea that all cadets are the same, an image VMI has worked hard to create.
"Have you ever had a group of men in a platoon or company where every man was equal - where every man did things the same way?" the Justice Department's Nathaniel Douglas asked Toffler.
"Never."
Toffler said the differences between the treatment of men and women at West Point are based mostly on physiological differences.
"Maybe some cadets have not come to understand what it's all about. . . . Some resent the fact that they have to do something at one level and another person doesn't have to."
Men, for example, have to do pullups while women do flexed-arm hangs. Men take boxing and wrestling while women study self-defense.
There have been other modifications, too. Some obstacles on an indoor course emphasizing upper-body strength were removed. Cadets no longer run in combat boots but in running shoes; they no longer carry heavy M-14s, but lighter weapons.
Toffler said many of these changes simply follow Army guidelines and were not made just for women.
Other changes were.
The school has an extracurricular club that focuses on women's issues. And chain locks were added to the doors of the barracks.
The locks came after some women complained of receiving unwanted male visitors in the middle of the night, Toffler said.
He told defense attorney William Clineburg that more than half of the school's females had complained about some type of sexual harassment - from simply receiving unwanted attention from male cadets to more complex and serious harassment.
A memo, issued after an advisory committee on women in the service visited West Point, said the issue of sexual harassment was "a salient concern of women cadets" when representatives visited campus, Clineburg said.
Toffler said it was not surprising the issue came up frequently because representatives had come to the campus to discuss gender concerns.
He said harassment issues would require continuous attention with every incoming class.
Female cadets at West Point have held many positions of authority, Toffler said.
At Virginia Tech, "Women have held all positions, from platoon leader to regimental commander, the most senior corps position," said Maj. Gen. Stanton Musser, commandant of the corps.
He said there are many similarities between the two schools. The tradition of having to memorize certain rules and items about the school's history, for example, are recorded in a notebook comparable to the "rat bible" at VMI.
But the corps is part of a larger, looser school, instead of one where the military atmosphere oozes into every activity.
While all cadets live together in a dorm, some civilian women share the bathroom facilities and live on the top floor. Cadets are allowed to be married, and if they are, they are excused from barracks life.
Two women in Tech's corps would want to get the "VMI experience" if they had the chance, Musser said.
Asked whether VMI would have to create an environment more like Tech's to accommodate women, Musser said, "In my opinion, they would."
by CNB