Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994 TAG: 9403040027
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Harry H. Warner
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Contrary to instructions of Judge Jackson L. Kiser of the U.S. District Court in Roanoke, it recently filed its "Proposed Standards and Procedures for a Program for the Integration of Women at VMI."
This document, with a typical "by the numbers" government approach, calls not for the enrollment of women on the same terms as men, but for a continuing obligation of VMI to make adjustments in its system to accommodate women, to prohibit harassment on the basis of sex, and to report biannually on the recruitment of women.
All this is in the face of a virtually nonexistent national demand from women, and is contrary to the Justice Department's earlier court testimony that VMI need only to accept females with little or no change.
The liberal element of the press, pseudo-constitutional legal scholars and the equality-at-all-costs feminist groups continue to pound away at VMI's resolve to protect its 155-year-old system of education and the concept of freedom of educational choice for all Americans.
VMI presses on amid this Alice in Wonderland thinking, and the oppressive weight of the infinite resources (i.e., your tax dollars) of the federal government. VMI has survived "The Year of the Woman" and now counts among its supporters the former Democratic and the newly elected Republican governors of Virginia, the attorney general, the State Council of Higher Education, and the majority of the citizens of the commonwealth.
VMI's legal and public-relations efforts have been maintained at tremendous costs - millions of dollars of private funds and years of distraction from educating and training young men whose predecessors have for generations proven their value to our country in times of war and peace.
To a nonlawyer, the facts of the case, many of which have been distorted in the press, are not complicated. Nor do they support the simplistic and presumptive conclusion of its detractors that because VMI is a publicly assisted, all-male college, it is ipso facto violating the constitutional rights of women.
The facts are these:
The Justice Department has argued its case against the institute in two courts (federal District Court in Roanoke and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond), and neither concluded that VMI's admission policy is unconstitutional.
Indeed, both courts went to great length to praise the school's mission, reputation and alumni contributions to society. Both courts confirmed that coeducation would alter the character of the school to the extent that women would lose precisely what they seek as a consequence of their admission.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the commonwealth of Virginia (not VMI) three possible remedies to cure the perceived injustice: VMI could go coed, VMI could go private, or the commonwealth could set up a parallel program for women.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case until the options proposed by the Circuit Court were examined by the District Court.
In considering these options, VMI rejected out of hand the option of going coed because, as agreed by both courts, that would unalterably change its unique system and its citizen-soldier product.
Moreover, educational specialists concluded that the school could never attract enough females to sustain successful coeducation.
Further, VMI concluded that privatization was much more complex than just replacing state financial assistance.
Could the General Assembly legally agree to "sell" the school to private interests, would its members risk incurring feminist wrath, and at what cost would such a transaction be deemed reasonable? More importantly, until the Supreme Court makes a decision, privatization may not be a defense against coeducation and VMI would be back where it started.
The alternative left was a parallel program for women.
After considerable effort by VMI's legal team, supported by educators, an imaginative Women's Leadership Program was designed in concert with Mary Baldwin College under the visionary and courageous guidance of its president, Dr. Cynthia Tyson. The program will be privately funded by the VMI Foundation and, as proposed to the General Assembly, will receive state support per student equal to that for VMI cadets. This public-private relationship conforms to recommendations of the recent State Commission on the University of the 21st Century. The Mary Baldwin program will have all the elements of VMI's system, including military training, except the adversarial rat (freshman) indoctrination, which educators conclude is unproductive for women. The plan, which gives women the unique VMI education and training experience is bold, imaginative and is a win-win for women, taxpayers, VMI and common sense.
As a layman, I believe that VMI's plan satisfies the opinion of the Circuit Court, but in all likelihood will begin another expensive and tortuous trek to the higher courts.
If the Women's Leadership Program ultimately is discredited, and the courts decide that the state cannot support any college that does not engage in coeducation, the result will be nothing short of disastrous for educational diversity. No institution of higher learning today exists without various forms of state and federal financial support.
Just as in the race cases of several decades ago, the claim by a college that it is "private" will not protect it from newly minted sex-discrimination laws. The end result will be the total elimination of single-sex educational opportunities - a ludicrous outcome. Both young women and men will suffer a lost freedom of opportunity in the name of equality. The ramifications would be specially tragic for inner-city black males who desperately need the opportunity of an all-male, adversative system as one ray of hope for their future.
The Institute stands alone in this fight for its liberty and that of all Americans to make rational decisions about their education. VMI's presumed sin, but not its shame, is to be male. It has sought no help and has received none. Do not imagine that it will yield. Some day America will again say, "Thank God for VMI."
\ Harry H. Warner, a 1957 graduate of Virginia Military Institute, was executive vice president of the VMI Foundation, the private endowment and fund-raising arm of the institute. He lives in Lexington.
by CNB