Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 4, 1990 TAG: 9003041996
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE SHENANDOAH BUREAU
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Long
An informal sampling by the Roanoke Times & World-News, in fact, turned up a number of people at the 150-year-old school who think coeducation at VMI would be fine.
The U.S. Justice Department sued the institute in federal court Thursday, seeking to force VMI into ending its male-only admissions policy.
Women already attend summer classes and night school at VMI, but there are no females in the 1,300-member corps of cadets.
"I guess the frustration is that everybody assumes the faculty takes the same position [on admitting women] as the board of visitors," said Timothy Duggan, an assistant professor of chemistry. "I personally would like to see the policy changed."
Nor is he alone. A number of the 120 or so faculty members at this state-funded school doubt the wisdom of fighting the Justice Department, some faculty members say.
A recent vote taken among some 20 members of the VMI chapter of the American Association of University Professors favored admitting females by a wide margin, said AAUP President Blair Turner.
The chapter has many members from the humanities and few from the engineering departments, some professors noted, and thus may not be a representative sample of VMI faculty opinion.
"[The vote] wasn't unanimous," said Turner, a VMI associate professor of history. "It was a large majority."
He said the AAUP hopes to poll all VMI faculty members in the next week or so to find out their opinions about the issue.
Asked for his opinion, Turner said, "Personally, I don't care . . . if women never want to come here. But it seems to me they certainly have the right."
Alan Baragona, an assistant professor of English, has similar thoughts.
"The Supreme Court has left open the possibility that a state school could be single-sex if there were some compelling reason to be. I feel there is no such compelling reason to remain all male, but there are many compelling reasons to change," Baragona said in a letter written to several VMI alumni.
"The leaders of today, never mind tomorrow, are already female as well as male, and VMI has an obligation to train them, and an interest in doing so," Baragona wrote.
Despite the school's official stand that VMI's all-male admissions policy is worth defending as "part of Virginia's rich and diverse educational heritage," VMI employees are free to speak their minds, school administrators have said.
VMI Superintendent John Knapp called a meeting of the faculty two weeks ago to "remind them that everyone has the right to express his or her opinion," so long as they make it clear they aren't speaking for the school, said Knapp's special assistant, Edwin Dooley Jr.
A Feb. 27 memo from Knapp to faculty, staff and the corps of cadets did say that the amount of news coverage VMI has received recently shows no sign of abating, "and may even increase.
"Although I feel that much of the coverage has been balanced, it underscores the delicate point of distinguishing between personal opinion and the institute's official position," Knapp wrote.
All who spoke to the Roanoke Times & World-News stressed they were giving their own opinions and were not speaking for VMI.
Many said they had been approached by reporters before.
In fact since Jan. 30, when the Justice Department threatened to sue if the school didn't adopt a "remedial plan" to admit women, the school's public information office has kept a running count of media visitors.
Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 20, by the school's tally, 50 or more reporters and photographers have visited the Lexington hillside campus - including reporters from The Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
The spotlight has made some at VMI cautious. Several people last week offered opinions pro and con about admitting female cadets, but refused to be quoted by name.
Others - definitely con - didn't hesitate.
"I think it would be the ruination of VMI," said Vergie Moore, an executive secretary in the superintendent's office and longtime VMI employee. "As soon as that first woman walks through the arch, the tradition is gone. They might as well tear it down and start over again."
"Once it changes, it can't go back," echoed Evelyn Duff, a publications specialist. "I really feel like they don't belong here."
Others were more circumspect.
"About the only thing I can say is there's a diversity of opinion," said Thomas Lominac, head of the VMI mathematics and computer science department, when asked how VMI math and computer science teachers felt about the issue.
Albert Deal, a professor of mathematics and computer science and a VMI faculty member for 28 years, said he supports the administration's position. "I hope it's because of rational reasons, though I know on the surface they're emotional ones," he said.
Of the five full-time female faculty members at VMI, two declined to be quoted. Efforts to contact a third were unsuccessful.
But English professor Meredith Bedell attacked some of the most common arguments heard in favor of keeping women out.
"It's a logical absurdity to argue VMI is unique and must be preserved - and then say what we have to offer is available to women elsewhere," Bedell said. "It's an intellectual embarrassment."
Marilyn Pearson, a VMI audiovisual and circulation librarian, stopped short of saying women should be admitted.
But if they are, said Pearson, "I do believe that the institute can survive it and still be successful in its mission, which is to produce leaders."
"I'm not sure I would choose it," Pearson said. "But that's beside the point."
by CNB