Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 16, 1993 TAG: 9311160215
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a sharply worded document, the government said integration of the 154-year-old, all-male academy is the only way to satisfy the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which ensures equal rights to all citizens.
In doing so, the Justice Department rejected VMI's proposal to set up a women's leadership program at private Mary Baldwin College in Staunton.
"The commonwealth's plan allows sex discrimination to continue," said acting Assistant Attorney General James P. Turner in a written statement. "The Justice Department's proposed procedure for integrating the college will protect the constitutional rights of women."
Attorneys for VMI, busy digesting the 64-page document, withheld comment other than to say the matter now rests in the hands of District Judge Jackson Kiser - who upheld VMI's all-male policy in 1991. Hearings are scheduled to begin Jan. 6.
"I think this is a restatement of the Department of Justice's position all along. I don't think there's anything surprising here," said Stephen C. Fogleman, a Washington, D.C., attorney and spokesman for the VMI Alumni Task Force.
"We'll just have to see what the court says," said VMI's superintendent, Maj. Gen. John Knapp, who was reading the documents late Monday.
In a telephone conference last week, Kiser had told Justice Department lawyers that their response to the Mary Baldwin plan could not be to propose coeducation at VMI.
But the government said Monday that the plan "fails to provide the benefits of the VMI education to those women who seek it."
Among the reasons:
Women would not be required to wear military uniforms or adhere to military procedures, etiquette and lifestyle while on campus.
Women would receive no additional military training or drilling than that already available at Mary Baldwin, which has an ROTC program.
Women would not be given an opportunity to live in close quarters, the military-style barracks that are central to a man's experience at VMI.
If the Justice Department has its way, VMI will admit women by the 1994-95 school year.
VMI has maintained that its system of education, including the rigorous "rat line," is unique and would be destroyed by the admission of women. But the Justice Department pointed out Monday that the Mary Baldwin plan, while perhaps attractive to many women, sets up a nonmilitary program at a liberal arts college, and does little to imitate life at VMI.
The plan "omits the essential components and benefits of the unique VMI experience; it designs programs based on gender stereotypes; and it delegates to Mary Baldwin College the responsibility for determining what remnants, if any, of the VMI methodology will be incorporated into the proposed Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership."
The much-anticipated Justice Department filing was the latest step in the 3-year-old case, which was returned to Kiser's courtroom by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last year. The appeals court said VMI must go private; admit women; or come up with a creative, parallel alternate plan.
The government wants the school to ensure that women are integrated into all aspects of the institute, with adjustments made to accommodate:
The need for privacy between the sexes while showering, changing clothes or using the restroom.
The need to prohibit discrimination or harassment on the basis of gender "in the same way VMI currently prohibits discrimination or harassment on the basis of race."
Physiological differences between men and women.
Gov. Douglas Wilder, who has supported the Mary Baldwin plan, apparently was formulating a statement late Monday, according to a spokesman.
While the Justice Department's position firmly draws the lines in the long-running battle, it also creates confusion over what happens next - especially given Kiser's ruling last week.
"I think that the Justice Department's proposal reflects what will be the ultimate resolution," said Eileen Wagner of Richmond, an attorney with the Virginia Women Attorneys Association. "By putting it forward now, they are making it very clear what will be the result if the Mary Baldwin plan doesn't pass muster in district court, or on appeal."
Said VMI spokesman Mike Strickler: "Judge Kiser had said they could present a plan, but co-ed wasn't to be part of the plan. And now it looks as if that's exactly what the plan is."
What happens next "is just going to be up to Judge Kiser."
Kiser will not comment on pending litigation, said his clerk, Steve Groh.
"It's a long battle," said VMI cadet Chris Meyers, a senior. "It's going to go on for awhile."
by CNB