THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609210313
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
LENGTH: 92 lines
VMI alumni plead
to go private rather
than admit women
LEXINGTON - Virginia Military Institute alumni pleaded with the school's governing board Friday to take the college private rather than forfeit its 157-year-old men-only tradition to ``political correctness.''
``It can be done,'' John Robins of Hampton, Class of 1969, pleaded in a rising voice as he pounded the lectern during a public hearing. ``The Keydets will rally and never say die. That's the spirit of VMI.'' Keydets is the nickname for the school's athletic teams.
All but three of the 23 people who addressed the VMI Board of Visitors urged them to defy a June 26 Supreme Court ruling that the state-supported college must admit women.
Two of the 15 VMI alumni who spoke said VMI should accept the ruling as the law of the land and embrace coeducation.
``We fought the good fight,'' said Harold Mercer, who also is a 1969 graduate. ``I don't like the decision. But I think we should go forward with coeducation. To do otherwise sends the message to cadets that we are going to go to any length to remain as we are, regardless of what the law of the land tells us.''
The Citadel, which had been the nation's only other all-male public military college, admitted women this fall to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
But VMI, a wealthier school with the largest per-student endowment of all public colleges, is balking. The U.S. Justice Department says VMI has been refusing to send applications to women, and has asked a federal court to force the school to send the applications.
The VMI board listened to public comment after three days of privately debating the merits of coeducation and going private. The board is expected to announce its decision today.
``To sacrifice VMI's long heritage and proud traditions upon the altar of political correctness would be most regrettable,'' Robins said.
Coeducation opponents assured the board that VMI friends and alumni could raise enough money to buy the $137 million campus from the state and offset the $10 million the state provides VMI each year.
The sale would have to be authorized by the General Assembly and approved by the governor.
Cops make teen tobacco
bust, the first in memory
FAIRFAX - For the first time in memory, police have filed illegal possession of tobacco charges against two teen-agers caught smoking outside their high school.
The two 17-year-olds, a boy and a girl, were spotted puffing on cigarettes outside Fairfax County's W.T. Woodson High School. They were charged Tuesday under a misdemeanor state law that prohibits the possession of tobacco products by minors.
Funding shortage
delays park cleanup
FAIRFAX - Six months after visitors to this county's largest park complained of a fuel-like smell, the mess still isn't cleaned up.
A cash shortage has stalled efforts to remove three underground fuel storage tanks that were found in March after one began leaking.
This week, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality extended to Oct. 25 a deadline for the Corps of Engineers to file a removal plan for the tanks in Huntley Meadows Park, the largest public park in Fairfax County.
But it's not certain the deadline can be met. ``Honestly, it's going to be a little longer,'' said Kirk Stevens, project manager in the Corps of Engineers' Norfolk division. ``All of our budgets have been cut, and our funding hasn't yet been approved for next year.''
Panel says no to insurers
paying for birth control
RICHMOND - Legislation that would require insurers to pay for birth control pills has failed to get support from a legislative commission studying health benefits.
The Special Advisory Commission on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits recommended instead Thursday a bill that would require insurance companies to reimburse certified nurse-midwives with their own practices. The bills will be considered by the House of Delegates Committee on Corporations, Insurance and Banking.
The birth control bill would require all insurers that offer coverage for prescription drugs to also include prescription contraceptives. MEMO: Compiled from reports by The Associated Press.Compiled from
reports by The Associated Press. by CNB