
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 28, 1994                   TAG: 9412070048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS AT WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Students at the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Mary Baldwin College will wear uniforms only when they go to required ROTC training at Virginia Military Institute.

Otherwise, they may wear what they like - but they have to adhere to a strict program. On top of Mary Baldwin's usual curriculum, the women's institute students must:

Take additional courses in math, lab sciences, foreign language and computers.

Take four interdisciplinary leadership courses, which still have not been developed.

Take a leadership externship.

Participate in a pre-orientation wilderness trip the summer before freshman year, live with other institute students that same year, and be subject to strict rules such as no smoking, no changing roommates freshman year, and participating in a required study hall.

Live one year in a reserved institute house.

Take Saturday seminars on leadership topics, organize a Leadership Speaker Series for two semesters, and participate in community outreach programs.

Take eight semesters of physical and health education courses, and either play on one of Mary Baldwin's sports teams, or take a separate physical training regimen.

Cost is $8,870 for Virginia students, and $18,600 for out-of-state residents. The General Assembly last session appropriated the difference between the higher tuition at private Mary Baldwin and tuition at public Virginia Military Institute for in-state students. But that appropriation pays for only two years for 25 students. Politically, said Mary Baldwin's dean of students, Heather Wilson, "We've entered the public realm." And as she can see from deep budget cuts to Virginia's public universities, when it comes to lobbying the assembly for funding, "there are no guarantees."

by CNB