home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Time - Man of the Year
/
Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
/
moy
/
101992
/
10199918.000
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-04-08
|
2KB
|
38 lines
THE WEEK, Page 22SOCIETYMarching Forward
A court ruling paves the way for women at Virginia Military
Institute
Defenders call it a bonding experience between college-age
men sharing the rigorous physical regimen and discipline of a
military education. Opponents call it state-sanctioned
discrimination that ultimately bars women from access to power.
Last week a federal appeals court in Richmond called it
unconstitutional and ruled that the elite Virginia Military
Institute must remedy its all-male admissions policy by opening
its 153-year-old doors to both sexes, providing a separate
program for women or forfeiting more than $10 million a year in
state money. But while the decision overturns a lower-court
ruling, it sends a mixed message by not ordering V.M.I.
outright to admit women. Feminists say this demonstrates the
reticence of even the court to tread on the Old Dominion that
spawns many of the nation's leaders.
School officials and faithful alumni contend it is simply
a matter of diversity in approaches to education that, if
stymied, will backfire. "It's going to be the death knell of
single-sex education," warns Stephen C. Fogleman, chairman of
an alumni task force fighting the change. But two of the options
presented by the court are highly unlikely, says an A.C.L.U.
lawyer who supported the Justice Department's case against
V.M.I. "The handwriting is on the wall. The only way to cure
this constitutional defect is to admit women."