THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 28, 1996 TAG: 9605280092
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: STAUNTON LENGTH: 65 lines
At Virginia Military Institute, cadets in their freshman year are known as ``rats,'' and they undergo rigid discipline at the hands of senior cadets.
At VMI's counterpart for women at Mary Baldwin College, students trying to come up with a name for freshmen settled - unwittingly, school officials say - on an even more derogatory term: ``wogs.''
The entering class at the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership chose the name as their freshman year came to a close this month. The name was supposed to be short for polliwog.
Mary Baldwin spokeswoman Crista Cabe said the students didn't realize that ``wog'' is a British slang term, used in hostility or contempt, for a dark-skinned foreigner.
``I know the students didn't have any idea what it meant,'' she said. ``In much of the English-speaking world, the word is recognized as a very, very ugly and racist word.''
School administrators are telling students to drop the name.
Whatever they are called, VWIL freshmen will not be treated quite the same as VMI's, student Amy King said.
``Our freshmen aren't rats,'' she said. ``We're not going to make them drop and do push-ups in front of everybody else.''
But the women still have a strict set of rules. They'll have to be in by midnight on their single night out during the school week, for example, and they'll be restricted to using only two of the staircases that run up and down the steep mountainside campus.
Gradually, the women's leadership program is setting its own traditions at the private, all-female Mary Baldwin. The program opened last August with 42 freshmen as a counterpart to all-male VMI. The 38 cadets remaining are wondering what the U.S. Supreme Court will decide about VMI.
By the end of June, the high court is expected to rule whether the Lexington school's single-sex policy is constitutional for a state-supported institution.
The ruling may make the VWIL program a legal, separate-but-equal alternative to women in VMI. But if VMI is forced to admit women, VWIL students are concerned.
``I think we're worried our program is going to lose its validity,'' said Shannon Baylis, a student from Norfolk.
``How is the relationship between VMI and VWIL going to be continued?'' asked Trimble Bailey of Roanoke. ``Since we don't know what's going to happen, a lot of rumors are flying.''
Cynthia Tyson, president of Mary Baldwin, has said from the start that the women's program here will continue regardless of the court's decision.
The rising sophomores and this fall's freshmen are guaranteed their four years, she said.
Their education is underwritten by about $750,000 donated by the private VMI Foundation and a legislative per-student subsidy that will reach $7,400 for each Virginia student next fall.
Foundation funding of about $22,000 a month will continue for the incoming class of 2000, college officials say. In addition, Mary Baldwin awards scholarships of varying sizes to many students to offset the $19,755 tuition.
Women are applying for the VWIL program. In court papers filed May 1, Mary Baldwin said it has 325 active VWIL prospects for the class of 2001.
Some VWIL students say they wouldn't want to go to VMI.
``I don't know of anyone who wants to go to VMI, the way it is now,'' said VWIL student Dominique Duncan. ``I wouldn't want to go there and I haven't heard of any girl who wanted to.'' by CNB