ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
``Life in the barracks, which is probably the greatest education tool that you have at VMI, will never be the same. ... Once you put women in the barracks, I don't care how many changes are made, it's still going to change the character of the barracks. You don't think VMI will fall off the bluff that it stands on ,but it will be a very changed VMI. ...
``I think any parents that knowingly let a girl go to VMI are out of their gmind. You would not subject a daughter to the VMI system. You would not want a daughter to go through it. The VMI system is tough. You have qualms about your sons going through it.''
Henry J. Foresman
Lexington, Class of 1941
``By no means will this be the death knell of VMI. The Yankees burned VMI during the Civil War, burned it down to the ground. I don't in any way equate this decision with such a catastrophe as that. VMI will always be able to carry out its mission of producing fine citizen-soldiers, and I do not believe that the decision today will affect VMI's mission. Some changes will have to be made, and I am not privy to any specific plan the institute has; but I am confident that VMI is prepared to meet this challenge and will do so very successfully.''
G. Marshall Mundy
Roanoke, Class of 1956
``Let me suggest another possibility: that VMI could actually benefit from the change it has so resolutely resisted ... that VMI could, strange as it may seem, get better.''
Liza Mundy, daughter of G. Marshall Mundy
Writing in The Washington Post Magazine
``It's not going to be the same. If everything is equal down there when the women come, it'll be all right. If [Shannon Faulkner, the one-time Citadel cadet] had gotten her hair shaved, and had to comply with the same rules as the men, I think she would have been accepted. I think if women go to VMI, their classmates will accept them unless they have special privileges. I wish there was some sugar daddy out there with enough money to make [going private] possible, but I don't think that's feasible.''
John Parrott
Roanoke, Class of 1950
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB