ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
IN PICKING A NAME for first-year cadets, students at Mary Baldwin College unwittingly chose a racist British slang word.
It was a passing comment made during an administrative meeting, but it fully arrested the attention of the thoroughly British president of Mary Baldwin College.
"Upon hearing it, my ears pricked up in a most astonished way," Cynthia Tyson said.
"It" was the word "wog," the now-nixed name for freshmen of the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership. The students voted on the word as a counterpart to Virginia Military Institute's first-year "rats," and meant for it to be short for "polliwog."
Instead, they unwittingly chose a British slang word that their president describes as "a dreadful term used in an unacceptable way for people of color."
Tyson learned of the name during a meeting late last week, when a member of the Staunton college's staff mentioned it to her in passing.
"I realized it was in innocence - total innocence - but as soon as I heard it, the moment I heard it, it had to be stopped right there," Tyson said.
The Roanoke Times, also unaware of the word's other meaning, reported the name in a Monday story about VWIL.
Tyson said she expects the students to go back and choose "an appropriate and fitting name."
"It's definitely not intentional," said Roanoke cadet Trimble Bailey, head of next year's freshman committee.
"We thought it was a cute little name, and we found out otherwise," said Radford cadet Kim Bond. "It's not a term that's widely used here. I'm glad we caught it now, before we put it into use next year."
Nominations for a new name will be reopened at the VWIL office at Mary Baldwin College. Tyson expects to have the final say.
"I do anticipate they will let me hear the name before they speak of it to anyone else," the college president said.
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