U.S. v. Virginia

A news article about admitting female students to a military college.

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Background

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia, was founded in 1839 as the country’s first state-funded military college. Its rigorous military and academic training prepares its graduates to become citizen-soldiers. Like other military schools, it was established as an all-male school. In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed into law a bill that allowed women to enroll at West Point, the nation’s most prestigious military school. VMI, however, continued to refuse to admit women.

The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter of inquiry to VMI in 1989. A female high school student applied to VMI and was rejected because of her sex. The Justice Department asked VMI to clarify whether their official policy was to reject female applicants. The school’s board refused to admit women and the Justice Department sued the school over gender discrimination in 1990. As a public educational institution, VMI received funding from the state of Virginia, which had oversight over the school’s board and its decisions. The state of Virginia was reluctant to change their laws to allow women to attend the public military school and proposed the creation of a women’s program, the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership (VWIL).

U.S. v. Virginia, as the case became known, came before the Supreme Court in 1996. The court ruled in favor of allowing women to attend VMI in a 7-1 decision. In the majority opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that the VWIL would not provide equal opportunities to female students. “The VWIL program is a pale shadow of VMI in terms of the range of curricular choices and faculty stature, funding, prestige, alumni support and influence,” she stated.

The decision was a major victory for women’s rights groups. The court’s ruling technically only affected VMI. However, it signaled to other military colleges and educational institutions that providing different programs for men and women was unconstitutional. The Citadel, a prestigious military college in South Carolina, admitted its first female students in 1996.

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VMI BOARD VOTES TO ADMIT WOMEN BUT SCHOOL WON’T CHANGE, OFFICIALS SAY

In the end, six years of litigation came down to one vote.

The potential obstacles – especially more lawsuits and the need for hundreds of millions of dollars – proved too much for those who fervently hoped to take Virginia Military Institute private and keep it all-male.

In a 9-8 vote Saturday, the VMI Board of Visitors agreed to admit women in the fall of 1997.

But VMI officials said that is just about all that will change.

“Female cadets will be treated precisely as we treat male cadets,” VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said. “I believe fully qualified women would themselves feel demeaned by any relaxation in the standards the VMI system imposes on young men.”

VMI says it will change neither physical requirements nor the boot camp-style “rat line” when women arrive. Women will get a “buzz cut,” and both sexes will draw half-shades when they are changing clothes in the barracks they’ll share. The barracks doors will remain without locks.

VMI is leaning heavily on the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 7-1 in June that VMI’s all-male admissions policy was unconstitutional. “VMI’s implementing methodology is not inherently unsuitable to women,” the court said.

Board president Bill Berry of Richmond quoted the court as he said, “Some women do well under the adversative model,” that “some women, at least, would want to attend VMI if they had the opportunity” and that “some women are capable of all of the individual activities required of VMI cadets … and can meet the physical standards VMI now imposes on men.”

The board’s decision came nearly three months after the Supreme Court ruling and two months after the board announced it would spend the rest of the summer studying its options. The board looked into coeducation while alumni organizations studied going private. Friday, alumni mounted a final effort to convince the board to keep the school all-male. They converged on the single hour of open public comment during the board’s deliberations.

Berry, however, said his correspondence has run about 50-50 between private and coed. Among those siding with coeducation was Cabell Brand, a 1944 VMI graduate whose ancestors include five cadets killed at the famed Civil War Battle of New Market.

“It should have been 17-0,” said Brand, of Salem. “It’s ridiculous they took so long, and they’re doing it grudgingly.”

Roanoke lawyer Marshall Mundy, class of ’56, concurred. “We made the right choice, and it’s time to join the 20th Century before it’s over.

(…)

Five of the eight board members who voted against coeducation held an impromptu news conference following the official statement from the school, saying they believe VMI will be “fundamentally changed in such a way that neither men nor women” will gain from the mental and physical stress of the military program.

Anita Blair, an attorney from Northern Virginia who sits on the board, said making VMI a coed public school is a “poor use of Virginia’s educational resources.” It will lose its “distinctive, attractive educational niche,” she said, and only a small number of women are likely to attend.

A private VMI would have needed an estimated $200 million endowment to replace $10.3 million in state funds – one-third of annual operating costs – each year. The cost to buy the campus and buildings has been estimated at more than $200 million, but, as board member Sam Witt said, the purchase price is “a political number.” The General Assembly would have had to approve the sale of the school.

Recruiting qualified female students is the next step, but Bunting said there is no set plan. The Citadel, which admitted four women this fall in response to the Supreme Court ruling, has a 53-point plan for coeducation, dealing with everything from pregnant cadets to sexual harassment and staff sensitivity training.

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Summary Text

After six years of lawsuits, this case was decided by one vote. The leadership of VMI voted to allow women to attend the school.

VMI officials say female students will be treated exactly the same as male students.

Women will have their hair cut short and there will be no locks on their doors. VMI says this follows the Supreme Court ruling which says women and men should be treated equally.

The president of the board said that some women would do better in a separate women’s program, but some women can meet the same high standards as the men.

After the Supreme Court ruled VMI had to allow women to attend, the board spent the summer exploring their options. Former students encouraged the board to keep the school all-male.

The board president said that the letters he received were evenly split between staying all-male and admitting women. One former VMI student says they should have allowed women to attend long ago. A local lawyer agrees.

Five board members who voted against allowing women gave a press conference. They said this decision means that nobody will receive a quality education at VMI.

A female lawyer who is a board member of VMI said this is a bad decision. She believes it means VMI no longer provides a unique education and not a lot of women will attend.

VMI needed a significant amount of money to go private.

The next step for VMI is to actively recruit female students but they don’t have a plan yet. The Citadel, a similar school, admitted women for the first time this year. They developed a detailed plan.

Teaching Materials

Suggested Activities

AP Government Connection: 2.10: SCOTUS in action
Consider how female students still face challenges at VMI today. This article includes the experiences of several women at the institute, 25 years after the Supreme Court’s decision.
Pair this resource with the life story of Maria Connie Villescas, who joined the military before VMI allowed female students. What do these stories say about women and the military? Why did VMI continue to only admit male students when many women had joined the military?
Examine how the Supreme Court’s interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause ruled against gender discrimination. Combine this resource with oral arguments by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a 1975 case.
Consider the impact of the federal government on women’s rights during this period by combining this resource with Title IX and the Nursing Relief Act.