ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 TAG: 9703120059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE THE ROANOKE TIMES
Tuesday's convocation came with an unmistakably cautionary message. As the upcoming senior class president put it: "All eyes are on VMI."
When women arrive at Virginia Military Institute next fall, the school must do two things to remain true to VMI's values:
"We must tell the truth. We must tell the truth about the things we change, and we must tell the truth about the things we cannot change," Robert Crotty, a member of the Board of Visitors, said Tuesday.
"The second thing is, we must do the right thing," Crotty said. He quoted a slogan stamped into some classes' VMI ring: "Honor above self."
In a convocation at Cameron Hall kicking off orientation for coeducation, attended by all of VMI's 1,200 students and 400 faculty and staff, Crotty and other school officials spoke of honor, change and history. The kickoff was designed to rally the troops; orientation for all remains on the calendar for the rest of the school year.
Still to come: information sessions offered by the eight committees that have spent the school year hammering out policies ranging from how short women's hair should be to whether women should wear skirts. Next month, the consulting firm of Lane & Associates arrives from Richmond to lead smaller groups through sessions about sexual harassment and fraternization.
But Tuesday's convocation also came with an unmistakably cautionary message. As the upcoming senior class president put it: "All eyes are on VMI."
"The time has come for everyone in the corps to step up ... and show everybody that VMI knows how to do business in a dignified, professional and honorable manner," said Kevin Trujillo, the cadet who'll be president of the senior class next year and the point man for all that goes on in the barracks.
"Some are just salivating at the thought of our failure. The corps of cadets won't give them the pleasure," he said.
But even the school's president, Superintendent Josiah Bunting III, pointed to South Carolina. The Citadel this week dismissed one cadet and disciplined nine others for the alleged hazing of two of the school's original four women cadets. The two women did not return to school this semester.
While Bunting declined to "censure or criticize The Citadel," he pointed to reality.
"The fact is, however, that any activity that is seen to be nefarious, or ill-judged or unfair will draw the immediate attention of the media, and will be on CNN in Sacramento five minutes after it occurs in Lexington," he said.
Bunting also reminded those gathered that the change ahead depends on the corps of cadets. He exhorted cadets to remember the value of "individual acts of moral courage."
"Please remember that. If you see something happening which is untoward, you must, you must act."
Bunting said before Tuesday's convocation that he thinks the school still may enroll 30 women next fall, a number pegged last fall as a "critical mass" that would ensure their success. Currently, 62 of the school's 922 applications come from women; the school has accepted 33. So far, eight women have sent in their deposits to attend VMI.
"We can prepare the members of the corps all we want," sophomore Jabari Craddock said after Tuesday's meeting. "But I think the ultimate test will happen on Aug. 19, when the first young lady steps foot on our campus."
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