Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993 TAG: 9305270266
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO NOTE: ABOVE
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It wasn't anything official - there were no budget officers or provosts involved.
But the conversations established that Tech was willing to be a possible "creative option" for the state in providing a military education for women - something the Blacksburg university has done for two decades.
"It was a `what-if type thing,' " said Maj. Gen. Stanton Musser, commandant for Tech's Corps of Cadets.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser to find women a program that equaled the military education provided to men by VMI, a state-supported school.
And when the Supreme Court this week declined to hear VMI's appeal, the case went back to Kiser with the Fourth Circuit's suggestions. They included: admitting women to VMI; going private (an option VMI says may be impossible, depending on what the state would charge for buildings and grounds); or setting up a similar all-female program.
The court left room for a fourth option - if VMI, the state or Kiser could come up with one.
"If Kiser or the state or whoever reaches a decision to use Virginia Tech as a comparable program, we would be more than willing to do that," Musser said. "It came up as an option - I have a corps with women in it."
Tech's corps would not consider becoming all-female to serve as a counter school to VMI, or even having an all-female dorm, Musser said. "We just couldn't go back to those days. We're integrated."
But, with the state's financial aid, the university might go to an all-military dormitory, instead of allowing civilians as it does now. And the university would certainly welcome any scholarships the state might offer to encourage women to attend.
Not that Tech would officially suggest such a thing now or ever, Musser said. If the university were to get in the middle of the court action, it could be viewed as a nod to VMI's all-male status.
Nor is VMI saying that the Justice Department would buy such a plan.
"I would think it might fly from VMI's standpoint," said Lt. Col. Mike Strickler, VMI spokesman. "It would be fine for us. But I doubt it would satisfy the Justice Department."
The existence of Tech's coed corps did not satisfy the Court of Appeals in an earlier hearing, when attorneys argued that VMI should be able to keep women out because they could get a similar educational opportunity "at a college down the road."
But it did satisfy Kiser, who had ruled in favor of VMI in District Court, finding that VMI offered diversity in the state's educational system.
In 1973, the year women were first admitted to Tech's corps, they were in a company of their own, the "L company." ("For `Ladies' I guess," Musser said.) That lasted until 1979, when the corps became fully integrated.
That's how it will remain, Musser said. And the style of training at Tech, different from the break-'em-down, build-'em-up approach at VMI, will remain as it is, too, regardless of whether the state hears this talk and looks to Tech for answers.
Enrollment in Tech's corps has declined over the years, from some 700 members in 1986 to 450 expected this fall. Of those, 75 will be women.
Musser and other commandants have blamed the decline in corps enrollment - here and everywhere - on defense cuts, which have limited scholarships for military students.
"There's no need to beat around the bush," Musser said. "If you pay someone money, you'll get them into your program."
If the state were to provide women with scholarships, with a return promise to serve in the Virginia National Guard, enrollment in the corps would no doubt increase, Musser said.
And he added, again, the qualifier: This is just talk. And there will likely be more talk along these lines as the court wrestles with a plan to find an equal opportunity for women.
"We're a bystander with a program that's fairly similar," Musser said. "It's in VMI's court to decide what they want to do."
VMI knows what it wants to do. The institute's alumni have poured many dollars into a defense fund to preserve the all-male school.
But the Justice Department will be another story, Strickler said. "The other party is not going to buy."
by CNB