Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 18, 1993 TAG: 9309180246
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Robert Lambeth applauded the efforts of VMI attorneys, who reportedly have been working with two women's colleges on a plan that would open the school to women.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Friday that attorneys for the Lexington school - facing a court-imposed deadline - had talked recently to the presidents of Mary Baldwin College in Staunton and Southern Virginia College for Women, a two-year school in Buena Vista. Both schools are members of the Bedford-based council.
"You have two established, respected higher ed institutions that are well-equipped to handle basic educational needs," Lambeth said. "I see no reason why they could not work out some arrangements with VMI or other experts to offer military training."
Lambeth said he suggested some months ago - though he would not say to whom - that there was some logic in using private colleges near VMI.
"I'm not claiming credit, but to me it makes a lot of sense, particularly if other options are not working out," he said.
The proposal also could be cost-efficient, given the financial crunch in higher education. Southern Virginia College announced this month that it would make some cutbacks for this school year. No jobs were cut, but employee salaries and benefits were reduced.
"It's an efficient way to go at it," Lambeth said. "In the big picture, it's another example of how private colleges can be of service to the commonwealth if people are creative and open to using the capacity of private colleges to meet the educational needs of the state."
Southern Virginia and Mary Baldwin are not the only institutions VMI approached. Four months ago, VMI's superintendent and Virginia Tech officials informally discussed setting up a VMI-style program for women at Tech, which has provided a military education for women for two decades through its ROTC program.
But the proposal never moved much beyond that discussion, Larry Hincker, Tech's director of university relations, said Friday.
"Nobody made any plans for a follow-up," Hincker said. "We have no plans to take it any further. Virginia Tech has a program that we're quite happy with. We don't plan on becoming a VMI."
VMI's attorneys are due in U.S. District Court in Roanoke Sept. 27 to present a method to bring their all-male school into compliance with the law. VMI's Board of Visitors is scheduled to meet with its attorneys Sept. 25 to fashion a proposed solution.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given state-supported VMI three options: Create a comparable program for women, admit women or go private.
Dr. Harvey Sadow, president of the VMI board, declined Friday to comment on reports of talks with Mary Baldwin and Southern Virginia colleges.
"The only constructive response I can give is that it's decision time for the Board of Visitors," Sadow said. "We have seriously and thoughtfully weighed and considered each of the remedies considered by the court. We will come forward with an appropriate response and I hope one acceptable to the legislature and governor."
Col. John W. Ripley, president of Southern Virginia and former head of VMI's Navy and Marine ROTC, told the Richmond newspaper that he and VMI attorneys have discussed the basics of setting up a separate program.
Ripley said VMI's options, as he views them, include housing female cadets at a nearby college and transporting them to VMI for classes, or having VMI instructors travel to where the women cadets live.
Women's ROTC instruction and military traditions such as the rat line would remain separate from the men's. There would be an all-female platoon that could train on the VMI grounds or elsewhere.
Cynthia H. Tyson, Mary Baldwin's president, refused to say if her school has been asked to play any role in helping VMI.
"I can't discuss that," she said. "The court will speak on September 27."
Financing a separate women's program at a private institution would not be that difficult, Virginia Secretary of Education Karen Petersen said. It likely would involve some kind of contract in which the state would pay for services the private school would provide, she said.
"The door is open to a public-private partnership," she said. "The state does it in other areas."
Sylvia Clute, a Richmond lawyer who is seeking the Democratic nomination in next year's Senate race, proposed earlier this month that the state preserve VMI's all-male tradition by setting up a sister school in Hampton.
Friday, she said a remedy involving women's colleges would be unsatisfactory.
"When it gets down to establishing separate but equal facilities, you've got to look carefully that this is going to be equal," Clute said. "They're talking about busing people back and forth. I don't think that satisfies the criteria."
Recent court rulings led Clute to her proposal for an all-women's military college at Fort Monroe, which is earmarked for closure because of defense cutbacks.
"Perhaps after they try some of these less satisfactory remedies, they might get more serious about mine," she said.
Mary Baldwin and Southern Virginia appear to be the only two of Virginia's five women's colleges to have been approached by VMI attorneys, presumably because of their proximity to the Lexington school.
Administrators at Hollins College in Roanoke County and Sweet Briar College in Amherst County said they had not been approached. Administrators at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg were not available for comment.
The colleges have not taken a back seat in VMI's quest to maintain its single-sex status. Last March, the colleges - with two out-of-state women's colleges - filed friend-of-the-court briefs, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the federal appeals court decision on VMI's single-sex admissions policy. (In May, the court refused to hear VMI's appeal.)
The colleges asked that the court reaffirm the value of single-sex education.
The Associated Press provided some information for this story.
by CNB