THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701190104
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: 41 lines
Virginia Military Institute is considering a mentoring program to help women ease into VMI's first class to include female cadets.
The school also may enter into an exchange program with other military-style colleges, bringing in female juniors and seniors to act in a sort of ``big-sister role,'' a VMI official said Friday.
But the Lexington school is on schedule to welcome its first women cadets with minimal program changes, Ret. Army Col. N. Michael Bissell told a gathering of the Shenandoah Valley Retired Officers Association on Friday in Harrisonburg.
Bissell, chairman of VMI's executive committee for the assimilation of women into the Corps of Cadets, said VMI has accepted 14 of 26 applicants for the fall.
VMI's planning began last year when the Supreme Court ruled that VMI, a state-funded institution, must end its 157-year, all-male admissions policy and open its doors to women. Unlike the Citadel in South Carolina, VMI chose to take a year to get ready for the transition.
The orientation part of the assimilation program will include a lot of briefings and mandatory training on sexual harassment, hazing and other issues, Bissell said. A private company will handle the special training, he said.
A mentoring program would involve women in administrative and staff positions at the school, Bissell said.
The U.S. Justice Department tried to pressure VMI to develop a transition plan immediately but a federal judge allowed the institute to make quarterly reports on its progress. The second of those reports is due next month.
Barracks life, which Bissell called the keystone to the VMI experience, will remain essentially the same. He called barracks life a fishbowl experience with no privacy.
The presence of female cadets means some privacy will be afforded, he said, with separate bathrooms and showers and pull shades on doors when cadets are dressing.