ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: DAN CASEY AND JENNIFER MILLER STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Below
Casey and Lacy, both Belgian thoroughbreds, clomped lazily past quaint buildings, hauling a buggy full of tourists by Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson's house.
Nonagenarian Robert "Bob" Wayland rocked slowly on his front porch along Washington Street.
Over on the campus of Washington and Lee University, Carol Watson and Regine Artis guided their toddlers down the shady paths outside Lee Chapel.
And next door at the Virginia Military Institute, lacrosse camp-goers honed their skills on the sun-drenched parade grounds.
It was decision day for the all-male, 157-year-old VMI. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state-supported military college to break with its single-sex tradition and admit women.
But pandemonium didn't break out. Cadets enrolled in summer school quietly stayed in their classes. And VMI's fortress-like stone barracks didn't come tumbling down.
Except for a gentle buzz that slowly worked its way up the narrow streets, through cafes and within local shops, Wednesday morning was just another Lexington summer day.
Of course, lots of folks had an opinion - no surprise for an issue that has captivated Lexington since 1990.
Over the past six years, single-sex education has become a conversation-starter for the city's 7,100 residents. Some have become mini-experts in Supreme Court law and lore, rattling off case law titles like the names of popular movies and speculating how the justices would decide.
Wayland, who has lived among the city's 2.5 square miles of red brick buildings for 56 years, shrugged when he heard the news.
"I don't think it'll change a durn bit," Wayland, 90, said with a laugh. "They're just making it legal now. [Girls] have been sneaking in there for years - after the moon goes up and the sun comes down."
On the VMI campus, the few cadets around for summer school were taking the decision the way a sick child faces another spoonful of castor oil: They will swallow it, but not because they want to.
First classman, or senior, Raynor Roberts said the court's decision was confirmation of handwriting that was already on the wall.
"It was something everyone was expecting, but nobody wanted to hear it," said Roberts, of Baltimore. "It's like going home, knowing that you did something wrong and you are going to be punished. You've just got to face up to it, although you don't want to."
"My dad is going to be hot," said First classman Brian Martin from Virginia Beach. His father is a 1971 VMI grad, and Martin's younger brother Matthew is scheduled to attend the 1,300-cadet college in the fall.
"I'll still go," Matthew Martin said from Virginia Beach late Wednesday. "The school still has all the honor and tradition. If I would have known coming in, I'd probably have picked another school. But women aren't going to have that big of an effect."
"There is nothing I can do about it now, I just have to live with it," said Second classman Jonathan Charbonnet from King George. "Part of the tradition may change, like the rat line, but you kind of accept it and move on."
Off campus, men treated the ruling much like Wayland. "I think it's about time," said Tom Osella, manager of the Healthy Foods Market on Washington Street, who graduated from Washington and Lee in 1985 - the year that private university went coed. "I think it's had a good effect on W&L."
"I believe the women should be admitted," said Larry Hartless, who works in VMI's mess hall. "They're in the Army, Navy and everything else."
Somewhat surprisingly, it was women in and around Lexington on Wednesday who seemed most put off by the prospect of women marching in gray wool uniforms on VMI's parade grounds.
"It's not unexpected, but very upsetting," said Gail Swink, manager of University Sportwear, where "Save the Males" T-shirts sold out weeks ago. "I just wanted it to stay all male. There's a need for that type of institution."
"I think the ruling stinks," said Nola Jones of Roanoke, who was sightseeing on campus Wednesday. "They need to leave some things alone."
"No! Really? No, no," said Regine Artis, whose husband is a VMI staff sergeant. "I cannot imagine a woman going through the same thing a male [cadet] goes through. They might have to have different standards."
"I'm in favor of single-sex schools," said Courtney Baker, Lexington's commissioner of revenue. "I went to one, my husband went to one, and all my children went to them. There are already plenty of coed schools. I don't know why we need another."
Some cadets - such as Roberts, who came to VMI because it was all-male - worry that women will feel isolated at the school.
That thought was echoed by Maj. Gen. Josiah Bunting, VMI's superintendent, during an afternoon news conference before a crush of print and television reporters.
The male-to-female ratio "is going to be really off-set," Roberts said. "I see the girls being really uncomfortable around a lot of guys."
When VMI first admitted blacks in 1970, he noted, they were far outnumbered by white cadets. There is no apparent tension between the races today, but the ratio is still unbalanced, he added.
However, Col. Peter Hoadley, a VMI civil engineering professor, doubts coeducation will have a major impact.
"Bridges are still going to be bridges. A concrete building is still a concrete building," he said. "The structures will be the same if there are both men and women."
"We've changed in the past," said First classman Trey Porter of Salisbury, Md. "I don't know why we can't continue as we have."
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ERIC BRADY/Staff. Anne Lee Stevens hangs a VMI flagby CNBdraped in black at Gearhart-Stevens Realtors on Old Cave Spring Road
in Roanoke County to show her displeasure with the ruling. Her
business partner, Bill Gearhart, is a VMI graduate. 2. STEPHANIE
KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. First classman Raynor Roberts called the decision
"something everyone was expecting, but nobody wanted to hear."