ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: PHILIP WALZER STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
Men's-only education isn't dead in Virginia.
Hampden-Sydney College, a 220-year-old private school with 950 students, will remain all-male after nearly a year of debate over whether to admit women, officials announced Tuesday.
The college will continue its mission ``to educate good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning,'' said William Boinest, chairman of the college's board.
President Samuel Wilson said, ``In a country as rich and powerful and freedom-loving as the United States, we should be able to afford choices to young people as long as we can. We represent one of the few remaining options.''
Boinest and Wilson spoke at a news conference at Richmond International Airport, where the board met Tuesday to decide the college's future.
The liberal arts college considered coeducation not because it was financially weak, Wilson said, but to ensure that its enrollment and the quality of its students remained stable through the next century.
The campus, outside Farmville in central Virginia, had been split on the issue. Most faculty members supported coeducation, believing it would bring more diversity - and higher-caliber students - to the classroom. Students were resolutely opposed, saying it would destroy the college's uniqueness and threaten the close bonds that link students. Administrators were divided, said Wilson, who didn't advocate either position.
The announcement drew ``a relieved and pleasurable feeling on this campus,'' said Baxter Vendrick Jr., 20, a rising junior from Norfolk who is already back at school.
``We don't have men jumping from the rafters, saying, `Ha, ha, we won this thing.' We have men comforted that the Board of Trustees brought out what the students wanted.
``We've got something special here, and I'd hate to see that leave, so I'm very pleased.''
The board had been split on the issue, but joined in a unanimous vote to remain all-male to endorse a spirit of unity, Wilson said. He did not disclose the initial breakdown on the board.
Virginia's other all-male college, Virginia Military Institute, is under a U.S. Supreme Court order to admit women or give up public funding. VMI's board will meet Sept. 21 to decide which option to take.
VMI President Josiah Bunting, who was president of Hampden-Sydney from 1977 through 1987, called the board's decision wise and far-sighted.
"I think it is an exhilarating decision. It preserves an option in our country," Bunting said.
There are two other four-year all-male colleges in the country - Wabash in Indiana and Morehouse in Atlanta. Like Hampden-Sydney, both are private. The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. - which had been the only other public all-male college besides VMI - announced shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling that it would admit women.
Wilson said the VMI case did not drive the decision at Hampden-Sydney. But he predicted that if VMI admits women, some males who want single-sex education might apply to Hampden-Sydney instead.
To ensure the college's future success as an all-male school, Wilson said, the school will have to mount a marketing campaign, which will cost $6.3 million over the next five years. That's less than the $7.7 million it would have cost to go coed.
``Alumni will have to dig down deeper than they ever did before,'' Wilson said. ``If they don't give till it hurts, they're not digging deep enough.''
Wilson said the money would help Hampden-Sydney more aggressively promote itself as an all-male school and schedule more events on campus, similar to a symposium on the Vietnam War held a few years ago. The goal will be to make the school ``a more dynamic place and a place where students don't feel they have to go somewhere else to have fun.''
College officials and students Tuesday voiced arguments supporting single-sex education similar to those made by supporters of VMI - and of women's schools.
Wilson said some men do better at all-male schools. ``Maintaining an atmosphere in the classroom without hormonally driven distractions allows a student to focus more on his studies.''
Boinest, a 1954 alumnus, said, ``This college teaches a sense of values I have not seen in coed schools in my lifetime ... We teach young men to be gentlemen.''
Boinest said the board met for a three-day retreat this month to hash out the pros and cons of each option. He said he had always leaned in favor of remaining all-male, but kept an open mind.
However, Wilson suggested that many supporters of the status quo didn't budge an inch. ``Emotions ran high, and opinions don't change easily. We found people became more deeply entrenched.''
A retired lieutenant general, Wilson said, ``I am comfortable with this decision. We are going to do our best to follow the all-male path, albeit with renewed vigor.''
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Wilson. color.by CNB