Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 10, 1991 TAG: 9104100493
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG/ HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Doing away with . . . an opportunity for males to experience this type of environment would be a mistake," Richard Richardson, a professor of higher education at Arizona State University, said in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
"Institutes for women continue to flourish, not just in Virginia, but in the United States," he said. But schools for men continue to dwindle. About 11,400 men are enrolled in all-male institutions, while 64,000 women attend schools for women, he said.
Of the 11 schools for men remaining in the country, only two - The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., and VMI in Lexington - provide a military education. Both schools are state-supported and have come under fire for not admitting women.
Tuesday was the fourth day in the trial, in which U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser is being asked to rule on the U.S. Justice Department's contention that the Constitution does not allow a public college to exclude women.
"VMI has a kind of diversity that doesn't exist anywhere else," Richardson said. "It takes essentially average students who have more than an average commitment and builds them so they leave with a very high degree of character. We just don't see that much in education."
Women could fit into the military and academic programs at VMI, said Richardson, the first witness called after the Justice Department rested its case against VMI's all-male admissions policy. "But the character-building and leadership development portions of education would be altered significantly."
Col. Michael Bissell, commandant of cadets at VMI, said that once one part of the VMI system is changed, the other parts would be affected.
"If the rat line changes, every other system in the institution will change," he said. "It will go through the whole corps like an amoeba."
The rat line is an initiation for freshmen, or "rats," designed to bring about unity. Rats are not recognized by upperclassmen as a class until they "break out" of the rat line, an event usually held in the spring.
The system at VMI is one of stress, officials say, not positive enforcement. And it is in situations like the rat line where they say they cannot picture females.
Women don't have the same threshold on emotion that men have, Bissell said. "Take a young woman in a rat line. You have a lady surrounded by four cadets. One is telling her to do push-ups. Another is asking her to name all of the superintendents. The third one says `Give me the menu for lunch.' " And the fourth sends her to the discipline office for wearing an unpolished belt buckle.
In a situation like that, Bissell said, the woman could break down emotionally, and he would worry not only about her, but about the young men, who would feel bad and back off, altering the rat line.
But should a woman want the opportunity to undergo that stress, to cut her hair short, and to spend months on a rat line subject to push-ups and other rigorous training, shouldn't she be able to attend VMI? asked Nathaniel Douglas of the Justice Department.
"Not necessarily," Richardson said. "If a student wanted to do something, I wouldn't let him if I thought it would cause harm."
Asked what harm would come to a woman admitted to VMI, Richardson said, "That has not been determined."
He also said, under cross-examination, that he is not making a judgment on whether women should be allowed to enroll in the 152-year-old school and that there could be values to admitting women.
"Would it be impossible for women to experience the VMI experience?" Judge Kiser asked.
"Yes, as it is now," Richardson replied.
Col. John Ripley, a naval ROTC officer at VMI who is still active in the Marine Corps, spoke about his alma mater, the Naval Academy, which opened to women in 1976.
Programs at the school, where Ripley returned in 1984 as a faculty member, had "nowhere near" the physical intensity that they had before women were admitted, he said.
During a cross-examination, the Justice Department's Michael Maurer read a statement from a former co-worker of Ripley's, saying that women had brought about the "creation of depth and understanding" among males at the academy.
Asked whether he agreed, Ripley replied, "No.
"And I'll tell you in the Marines, they're more interested in combat value, guts and the ability to take a fight to the enemy," he said.
by CNB