THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608190054
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: 61 lines
Virginia Military Institute must get approval from the U.S. Justice Department before contacting the nation's armed service academies about how they integrated women into their ranks.
In a letter to VMI lawyers, the Justice Department said the Lexington school will have to get approval before talking with officials and cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
VMI also must get Justice Department approval before contacting the Defense Department.
As for past communications, ``we request that you submit a letter to us explaining in detail the nature and content of and the reasons for such contact,'' the July 31 letter reads.
VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III, who leads a committee that's formulating a plan to admit women, said Friday that the new order will hinder the group's efforts to integrate women.
The letter says the request is ``consistent with past practice in this case,'' and the Justice Department had no other comment.
The committee has spoken with other formerly all-male military schools, including the Army's Military Academy at West Point.
West Point and the Naval Academy admitted women 20 years ago. Communication with the academies and the Defense Department, which oversees VMI's extensive Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs, may be important in determining how best to integrate women, the school maintains.
VMI officials also have spoken with Texas A&M University, and they're expected to closely watch The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., which will enroll three women on Saturday.
``Questions about uniforms, rooming, jewelry, makeup - all those kinds of things that they haven't had to think about as a male institution. . . they're going to have to figure out what they want their policy to be,'' said Col. Patrick A. Toffler of West Point.
VMI's 157-year-old system was overturned in June, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the school could not exclude women and remain state-supported.
The VMI board of visitors ordered Bunting to develop a plan for admitting women. But the board also gave alumni until next month to devise a way to dodge coeducation by taking the college private.
The board will meet Sept. 21 to consider its options. It then will present a plan for complying with the Supreme Court ruling to U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser in Roanoke.
Two days after the high court's VMI decision, The Citadel - until now the nation's only other public, all-male college - announced it would ``immediately . . . and enthusiastically accept qualified female applicants.''
Three women are expected to be arrive Saturday.
Because of the order, VMI will have to tell the Justice Department what it wants to know and why. The Justice Department also must approve any information before West Point provides it.
This week, 405 freshmen cadets - called ``rats'' - report to VMI. They will endure a week of training under a select group of upperclassmen before the remaining cadets return to Lexington next Sunday. Classes start Aug. 27.
About 40 women have requested information about applying to VMI since the Supreme Court ruling. VMI has told them that school officials will get back to them after the Board of Visitors decides what course it will take. by CNB