
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 4, 1993                   TAG: 9311040227
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MARY BALDWIN PLAN ITS OWN

Planning for a women's leadership program had been under way at Mary Baldwin College for "a long time" before all-male Virginia Military Institute turned to the school to meet a court order, the president of the private, all-women's school said Wednesday.

"It's as if our plan, [and] then, this summer, the challenge to the commonwealth, came together in a beautiful mesh," said Cynthia H. Tyson, president of the Staunton college.

Tyson spoke after a private meeting with Mary Baldwin's alumnae that focused on the details of the 20-page plan to create the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership. Most alumnae appeared relieved that the program does not seem simply to append Mary Baldwin to VMI.

"My concern was for the students at Mary Baldwin," said Mary McBurney, a Roanoke alumna. "I think this would be good for women."

Under the plan, Mary Baldwin students may choose the leadership program as they now choose majors.

The program could be in place by the fall of 1995 or '96, regardless of the court case that has brought it headlines, said Tyson. Women who enter will be members of the Virginia Corps of Cadets, along with ROTC students at Virginia Tech and cadets at VMI. They will live in separate housing and undertake rigorous physical fitness and ROTC training, perhaps under the direction of VMI teachers.

Extensive study into how to teach leadership will come before the program is put in place, she said.

"We think women develop skills to compete - leadership responsibilities - best in a setting that encourages their development," said Tyson. "Now, I am not saying that I don't support coeducation. I'm saying there should be both."

The program would be run under contract with the state, initially paid for by $6.9 million from the VMI Foundation, the private group backing VMI's challenge to admitting women.

In January, hearings are to begin to determine whether the plan creates a program sufficiently parallel to that found at VMI to satisfy an appeals court finding that VMI's all-male policy is unconstitutional. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered that VMI admit women; become private; or establish a separate, parallel program for women.

The U.S. Justice Department, which brought suit against VMI on behalf of a woman who was denied admission, is to respond to the plan Nov. 15. Last week, Justice Department officials argued in U.S. District Court in Roanoke that VMI failed to release sufficient details of it.

After Wednesday's meeting at the Shenandoah Club in Roanoke, Tyson talked as if Mary Baldwin's plan was apart from the legal fray. The college will have a leadership program whether VMI needs it to or not, she said.

"Mary Baldwin is creating a program in leadership," Tyson said. "Mary Baldwin will create it in her own style, tried and tested since 1842.

"I think a misconception is that Mary Baldwin is doing the bidding of VMI."

by CNB