Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 25, 1993 TAG: 9309250235
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Faculty at the private women's college in Staunton voted Friday in favor of establishing a process in which a leadership program "appropriate to the college's mission" can be planned.
"If the commonwealth wishes to look at this as a solution to its challenges, then we are very able to design a premiere leadership program for women," Cynthia Tyson, president of Mary Baldwin, said. "If others beyond this institution look to us and want us to provide a program or service, then we stand willing to serve in that."
Tyson said the college had been approached this summer by VMI representatives about the leadership program but not by VMI faculty or staff. She said it was "quite by coincidence" that the program was proposed while VMI was looking for ways to satisfy a court order to admit women, set up a parallel program or go private.
Tyson would not elaborate on conversations she has had with Gov. Douglas Wilder about the program. Wilder has been ordered to approve a solution before VMI submits its remedy in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on Monday.
The faculty vote - which came a day before VMI's board of visitors meets to devise a proposed means of compliance with the court order - was not unanimous. Fifty-two faculty voted for it and eight against. Three abstained.
Tyson said some faculty members were concerned that if Mary Baldwin were to provide a program in conjunction with another institution, "there would not be the autonomy that we have had in every aspect of our programs."
"But Mary Baldwin will have autonomy and control," she said. "Mary Baldwin will be totally in control of every aspect of the academic program that we shall prepare."
The program has been discussed as the front-runner of two proposals that could end VMI's nearly 4-year-old litigation with the U.S. Justice Department over its policy of not admitting women. The second proposal would involve housing women cadets at Southern Virginia College for Women in Buena Vista.
Mary Baldwin's leadership program would have military components, including an ROTC requirement, Tyson said. ROTC is an elective at the college but students must travel to James Madison University in Harrisonburg for courses. One Mary Baldwin student is enrolled in the program this year.
Though it is an elective now, ROTC would be a requirement in the leadership program, Tyson said.
The program will take considerable planning, said Lewis Askegaard, the college's associate dean.
"The next step will be for us to work through the faculty committee structure and develop a study group," he said. "The study group will begin the process of examining alternatives to determine what sort of resources should be brought on campus, what sort of expertise on leadership. Through this process, ultimately a series of recommendations will result."
Though Tyson said there have been preliminary discussions on cost, she declined to comment on specifics. Some estimates have put the expense at $5 million.
"As to how long it will take, I really have no idea."
Student reaction was mixed. Some thought it was too early for anyone to reach any hardened conclusions about the program. Others liked the idea.
Sabrina Rakes, a senior, said the biggest concern about the program is its military aspect.
"A lot of people feel it's not part of Mary Baldwin and the Mary Baldwin program," she said. "Just how much is Mary Baldwin going to change?"
Rakes, though, sees the program as continuing the school's tradition of innovation.
"We have so many programs here," she said. "When you first hear about them, you're hesitant. You don't know how to react to people who are in our adult degree program or program for gifted high school students.
"But once you're in the classroom with them, you understand that they add a lot to the classroom. And I guess this program will do the same - bring in another aspect."
Some academic and legal experts question the proposal.
"I question whether it really constitutes a comparable alternative to the VMI experience, the more Spartan existence of a military school," said Tom Morris, president of Emory & Henry College and a VMI alumnus. "Mary Baldwin would be running a program largely independent of the VMI program. It's less of a comparable program."
John Paul Jones, a professor at the University of Richmond law school, said Friday that the Mary Baldwin proposal does not satisfy the legal standard.
"Mary Baldwin is proposing a very different substitute for attending VMI," Jones said. "VMI spent a lot of time telling us there was no substitute for VMI, and I believe them."
by CNB