ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 9, 1996 TAG: 9612090124
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Dec. 10.
Correction
In Monday's story about Lauren Wagner, the Richmond teen-ager offered
early admission to Virginia Military Institute, the religious
affiliation of her school was incorrect. St. Catherine's is an Episcopal
school.
Even if Lauren Wagner passes up the chance to attend Virginia Military Institute next fall, she will always be among the first four women offered admission to the formerly all-male school.
The 18-year-old redhead, a three-sport varsity athlete at St. Catherine's, an all-girl Catholic school in Richmond, still hopes for a spot at the Air Force Academy, her first choice.
A lieutenant - soon to be captain - in the Civil Air Patrol, Lauren is two hours away from her pilot's license, and she wants to make a career of flying.
She has met the academy's initial requirements - including the physical fitness test she passed Sunday - and secured her congressman's primary nomination. Now she must wait for a review board to make its decision, which could come in January.
Because the academy takes only 17 percent of applicants, Lauren applied to all the service academies and several colleges that offer flight programs or cadet corps.
While at the beach for Labor Day, Lauren asked her mother if she could get an application to VMI.
A startling question for any mother, but especially for Lauren's mother.
``I remember I was in the hot tub,'' Eileen Wagner said. ``I almost went under.''
Wagner, a lawyer and former college professor who specializes in higher education cases, once filed a friend of the court brief in the VMI case. Wagner represents Christy Brzonkala, the former Virginia Tech student who says two football players raped her.
In the VMI case, she argued the court should give VMI a choice: admit women or give up state funds.
Lauren was 13 at the time, and it never occurred to Eileen or her husband, Lester, that the case's outcome might affect their daughter.
Not only had they never considered VMI, they never thought their daughter would attend a military school.
Eileen's father was a career Army man who dreamed of being a pilot but did not qualify because of poor eyesight. While stationed in St. Louis, he took a couple of short flights around the airport with Charles Lindbergh.
She remembers mentioning the military to Lauren only once:
``When she was 10 years old, I told her in a kind of offhanded way that a career in the military might suit her. Never said it again.''
Then, when Lauren was 16, she announced she was going to a Civil Air Patrol meeting.
Flying ``seemed different, something no one else did,'' Lauren said.
She said her first solo flight was an incredible experience and a confidence-builder. She was sold on flying, and the Civil Air Patrol has allowed her to fly and develop leadership skills. She was named honor cadet of the year at a banquet Saturday.
VMI probably got her address from the air patrol, she said, and in September, two days after the board of visitors voted to admit women, an admissions officer called. He was polite and wanted her to know the institute wanted women to apply. He told her she was qualified.
Eileen said that was all she needed to hear.
"I told [Lauren] that all the work I did, for which I wasn't paid, paid off with that one statement," Eileen said. ``That someone would say to my daughter, `We don't care about your gender - you're qualified.'
``That's a tremendous jump. They never would have done that in my generation.''
Lauren submitted her application two weeks later and eventually was invited to interview for an Institute Scholarship. She has been offered the select, all-expenses paid scholarship and has until Jan.15 to accept.
Despite the national attention the VMI case has attracted, Lauren remains unfazed.
``I don't think it's a big deal,'' she said. ``I just think of myself as a high school senior who has to find a college to go to.''
As for the VMI "family," Lauren and Eileen agree there always will be naysayers who want things to stay the way they have been in the past. Eileen calls that attitude unrealistic.
``If you don't change, you'll die,'' she said. ``That's the fact in higher education. Schools do come and go, so you have to be on top of what's going on in the world.''
The cadets Lauren spoke with at an on-campus dinner told her ``now that women were coming, they wanted to do it right,'' she said.
Lauren knows going to VMI will be hard for the first women, that some things will be awkward.
``I think, over time, things will work out really well. Look at the service academies.''
What if Lauren ends up at VMI after all?
``We [would be] opening the doors for women to come in the future,'' Lauren said. ``That's the important part.''
Eileen said she would be proud, but not as thrilled as Lauren.
``I'm not all that enthusiastic that she'd be the one to beat down the trail,'' she said. ``As a mother, it does make me pause that she'd have to drag this 152-year tradition into the 21st century.
``Lauren tells me not to worry about it. I've learned that when women of this generation say that, they mean it.''
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Eileen Wagner and her daughter, Lauren, pose for aby CNBportrait Sunday in Richmond. Lauren has been offered a full
scholarship to the formerly all-male Virginia Military Institute.
She has until Jan.15 to decide whether to accept the offer. She's
waiting to hear from other colleges, in particular the Air Force
Academy. color.