ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
When The Citadel drew up plans to voluntarily admit women cadets last month, administrators wanted to discharge any woman who got pregnant.
They soon learned that policy violated federal law. Officially, pregnancy is considered only a temporary condition. So pregnant cadets will be temporarily discharged, meaning they can reapply for admission, spokesman Terry Leedom said Monday.
Two days after a divided board of visitors voted to accept women next fall but change almost nothing, Virginia Military Institute isn't saying how it will deal with cadets who might get pregnant.
Bill Hurd, deputy state attorney general, said Monday that he would submit in U.S. District Court the board's resolution for coeducation this week. Even though VMI's resolution is not a detailed plan, officials there are hoping for a relatively autonomous conversion to coeducation.
Whether the Justice Department, which first sued VMI over its admissions policy in 1990, allows the transition VMI wants remains to be seen.
Spokeswoman Lee Douglas declined comment except to say that Saturday's statement by Deval Patrick, assistant U.S. attorney general, "sort of speaks for itself." Patrick promised to "work with school officials to ensure that women are successfully integrated into VMI, as they have been in the military academies for many years."
In the resolution, the board states VMI won't change its adversative methods, except to adopt minimal changes to accommodate privacy and some aspects of physical training.
VMI is going to closely follow the court's opinion, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which says some women might do well under VMI's adversative method. At a news conference Saturday, VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said the school would not put locks on barracks doors, and would require women to crop their hair.
Women will live in the barracks, use their own showers, and all cadets will put up shades when they need privacy. The physical test that all cadets have to take until they pass it - or graduate - won't be changed.
Monday, the National Organization for Women blasted VMI's decision to require the same haircut for female cadets as males, calling it an attempt to humiliate females.
``They're poor losers,'' said Karen Johnson, a NOW vice president and retired Air Force colonel.
``The haircut is just a way of being vindictive,'' she said. ``In Nazi Germany, they shaved the heads of female prisoners to shame them.''
NOW noted that The Citadel followed the military academies' lead in treating women differently, allowing longer haircuts and easier physical tests.
``The experience at the military academies has shown women have not been demeaned by different standards,'' Johnson said. ``They [at VMI] are trying to out-macho the military academies, and that's ridiculous.''
As they anticipate the federal response to their position, VMI officials might want to check out the 13-point list The Citadel soon will report to the Justice Department.
Items range from the composition by sex of faculty, staff and administrators by position, to a description of where each female cadet is housed in relation to her cadet unit and latrines, along with copies of floor plans for illustration.
The Citadel is making more changes than VMI plans, but Leedom said the Justice Department has asked "for endless piles of stuff."
"We're doing everything right," Leedom said. "This just looks like a nightmare of paper work that's going to be burdensome and won't change the outcome. It's not like an integration case or something. It's a very simple matter. The court ruled. We acted. Boom."
The Citadel opened its doors to women two days after the Supreme Court struck down VMI's all-male admissions policy.
The Citadel decided to put latches on doors and add the Army's female physical test to the school curriculum. Men always have had to pass the Army's physical requirements for males. The differences include a two-mile run for men in just under 16 minutes compared to just under 19 minutes for women to make it.
At VMI, both sexes must run a mile and a half in 12 minutes or less.
Sensitivity training also arrived at The Citadel this school year: No touching, and cadets watch their language. Leedom said the students are making "sure we don't use any terms that would be demeaning or suggestive, [and] don't presume familiarity" by using names like "babe" or "honey."
VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said the school isn't trying to avoid oversight, but it does hope to sit down and work out details "rather than presenting a big, long plan in advance."
The school also won't change its long-standing invitation to prospective students, who come see VMI's "system" in action.
"We bring them in during rat line for admissions open house weekends to get them up to speed on what goes on. We don't hide anything. We want them to know. Certainly, you wouldn't want any less for the women that come in here. They've got to be aware of how difficult the system is," Strickler said.
Meanwhile, a longtime legal observer of the case, Washington & Lee University law professor Ann Massie, said "I hope nobody will be unnecessarily combative about this thing. I suspect the Justice Department will go into that courtroom demanding a pretty detailed, specific plan."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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