ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
VIEWS ARE MIXED, but many people who called The Roanoke Times about the school's upcoming decision said admitting women is fine, as long as they don't get a break.
Go private, but if you can't, don't give the women an inch.
So says a majority of the roughly 30 people who took The Roanoke Times' invitation to offer advice to Virginia Military Institute's Board of Visitors as it holds its first meeting since the school's all-male policy was ruled unconstitutional.
"What I think is: Don't change a thing," Eva Smith of Roanoke said. "Don't make accommodations for the women. Let 'em go to the bathroom with men, let 'em shower with men. If they want to be men, let 'em act like men."
Retired Marine officer Ed Bringsley was a little softer. He said give the women dorm space, a private toilet and a place to shower, but that's it. Based on Shannon Faulkner's quick withdrawal from the Citadel last year and what he knows of VMI's regimen, Bringsley said, "If women come there, they probably won't stay too long."
Five people stressed the importance of preserving the tough regimen of VMI's infamous "rat-line" approach to training. Stacy Meadows of Christiansburg even suggested a rule barring women from filing claims of sexual harassment.
Only one of those five, Cara Kastritsis, a research associate for Yale University who lives in Salem, actually supports last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision that VMI's all-male program was unconstitutional. Women should go to VMI, she said, but being a VMI woman shouldn't be worth less than being a VMI man.
"VMI has established itself as a high-level military training school," she said. "Women ought to be trained at the same level and graduate as peers."
Kastritsis was part of a slight minority in this highly unscientific survey who thinks it's time for VMI to "get with the times."
"I think the maggots ought to shape up," said Bonnie Waybright of Roanoke. Fewer and fewer people are interested in a school like VMI these days anyway, she said. "So if they go private and the tuition goes up, they might as well close the place now."
A few minutes later, Waybright called back.
"I'm just sitting here thinking about this stupid VMI business, and I wouldn't give 'em any advice," she said. "The highest court in the land has spoken, and they aren't even smart enough to hear that."
Others felt the same.
"What I can't figure out is all this whining and wringing of hands," said a man who identified himself only as a Naval Academy graduate. All the armed forces military academies have admitted women, as have all branches of the military. "You should have done it years ago. So look, this is a country of laws, and the law of the land is that women will be admitted. So that's it. Pick up your pack and move out."
There were some creative solutions to the difficulties that would accompany privatization, too.
William R. Painter Sr. of Roanoke recommended VMI go private, and that the board of visitors consult with Pat Robertson, Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell to learn how to raise the money.
Matthew Anziulewicz thinks VMI and the Citadel ought to help each other out by combining their schools into one. "Maybe call it 'Virginia Citadel' or something like that and...have at least one private, all-male military institute."
But Cynthia McLearen wrote that going private sends the wrong message to the world.
"If VMI can raise money to go private, the message, once again, is that money talks. And if you have enough of it, you can do whatever you want in this society."
The VMI Board of Visitors meets in Lexington today through Saturday. The board chairman has said a decision on whether the school will admit women or go private is unlikely before its Sept. 21 meeting.
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