Alumni and Friends of VMI:
Cyber Corps Numbers: 552
Special to Air on VMI Civil Rights Martyr: If
you remember, Jonathan Daniels was a member of the VMI class of
1961.
Special to air on Episcopal civil rights martyr (ENS) The
Episcopal Media Center recently announced its cosponsorship of
the hour-long program,"Here I Am, Send Me: The Journey of
Jonathan Daniels." It will air on February 25, at 10:00 p.m.
(EST) on Odyssey Cable.
This documentary, which is narrated by actor Sam Waterston, is
about Jonathan Daniels, a white Episcopal seminary student who
found a sense of community working side by side with
African-Americans in the South and who lost his life in the civil
rights struggle.
It was the spring of 1965, when Daniels, a student at Episcopal
Theological Seminary, heeded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's call to
march from Selma to Montgomery and help register African-American
voters in the South.
Daniels wrote, "I think it was when I got teargassed leading
a march in Camden that I began to change. I saw the men who came
at me were themselves not free. It was not that cruelty was so
sweet to them (though I'm afraid sometimes it is), but that
they don't know what else to do. Even though they were white and
hateful and my enemy, they were human beings too. I began to
discover a new freedom in the Cross: freedom to love the enemy.
And in that freedom, to will and try to set him free."
Just minutes after being released from jail for his participation
in a demonstration, Daniels was shot to death by a deputy
sheriff. His last act was to push Ruby Sales, an African-American
girl, out of the line of fire.
His death prompted outcries from many including Dr. King who
said, "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I
have heard in my entire ministry and career for civil rights was
performed by Jonathan Daniels."
The film will be available on video, after February 25, for
$29.95 plus $3.50 shipping through The Episcopal Media Center,
Atlanta, Ga. Call (800) 229-3788 or visit their website at www.episcopalmediacenter.org.
Some Great News:
Judge ends federal oversight of VMI
Friday's ruling officially ends a nine-year legal battle that
went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
By MICHAEL HEMPHILL
THE ROANOKE TIMES
The civil rights lawsuit that prompted Virginia
Military Institute to end its 157-year heritage as a male-only
institution was dismissed Friday by a federal judge.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Jackson
Kiser ruled that VMI has fully complied with a 1996 court order
that it open its ranks to women, and thus no longer requires
federal oversight.
"We feel like we've done a very good job
of assimilating women here," said Col. Mike Strickler, VMI's
spokesman. "The cadets did a great job. It was up to them to
do the job right, and it will remain up to them to do the job
right."
Friday's ruling officially ends a nine-year
legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And
VMI hopes the battle won't ever be sparked again.
"We will obviously continue to monitor
the situation here," Strickler pledged. "It's something
at the forefront of our mind."
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the
lawsuit in 1990 in U.S. District Court in Roanoke after a female
high school student from Virginia complained that the military
college refused to admit her because of her sex. The lawsuit
claimed that the school had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964
and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution, because it received federal taxpayer money, but
barred half the population from admittance.
Kiser sided with VMI in dismissing the lawsuit
a year later.
"VMI is a different type of
institution," Kiser said in his opinion. "It has set
its eye on the citizen-soldier and never veered from the path it
has chosen to meet that goal. VMI truly marches to the beat of a
different drummer, and I will permit it to continue to do
so."
Kiser got a chance to revisit the case in
1994, after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his
original decision and directed VMI to go private, admit women, or
come up with an alternate parallel plan.
Against objections from the Department of
Justice and women's groups, Kiser approved a VMI proposal that
provided for a publicly funded women's leadership institute at
private Mary Baldwin College in Staunton.
In 1996, it was the U.S. Supreme Court's turn
to weigh in. By a 7-1 majority, the justices ruled that if the
state of Virginia chose to bar women from the "premier
training" that VMI affords, it would have to do so without
federal funding, which amounted to almost half the school's
budget.
Faced with that reality, the VMI board of
visitors, in a 9-8 vote, agreed to admit women in the fall of
1997. Thirty were admitted that year and 34 in 1998.
Strickler said the concerns many alumni had
about women entering the school have been allayed.
"The main thing we did not want to do was
change the basics of VMI," he said. "And women have not
come here to do that."
Officials with the Department of Justice and
the National Women's Law Center, which fought VMI's male-only
admissions policy from the beginning, couldn't be reached for
comment Friday.
But The Department of Justice Says, "Not So
Fast":
Wednesday, February 03, 1999
U.S. judge had ended court supervision
VMI effort to be coed isn't over, feds say
VMI has been required to file quarterly reports updating the
government on its efforts to assimilate women into the school.
By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES
The Justice Department isn't ready to let go of
Virginia Military Institute yet.
Justice Department attorneys have objected to
U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser's Jan. 15 order releasing VMI
from court supervision of its efforts to assimilate women into
its corps of cadets.
It's too early to tell if VMI has remedied its
constitutional woes, the government claims in a motion filed last
month in federal court.
Besides, government attorneys didn't get to
have their say before Kiser made his decision, according to the
motion.
Kiser admonished the government for taking too
long to respond in an order he filed last week. He entered his
ruling nearly a month after the Justice Department knew he was
considering the matter, and the motion was "becoming
stale."
Nevertheless, he ordered VMI to respond within
20 days to Justice Department requests for information ranging
from financial aid and admissions statistics to physical fitness
testing and sexual harassment.
VMI is "gathering some general data"
in response to the request, spokesman Mike Strickler said.
Kiser consistently ruled in favor of VMI
during the seven-year court battle over whether the state-funded
Lexington school's all-male admissions policy was
unconstitutional. It was Kiser who ruled that setting up a
separate all-female military leadership program at Mary Baldwin
College kept VMI within the onstitution. The U.S S upreme ourt
overturned that ruling 7-1 in June 1996.
Since then, VMI has been required to file
quarterly reports updating the government on its efforts to
assimilate women into the corps of cadets. Kiser's January
ruling, which released the school from court supervision,
dismissed the 1990 lawsuit.
The first 30 women arrived at VMI in August
1997, with 22 completing the year. Another 34 women matriculated
this year. So far, eight have dropped out.
Except for some suspensions and some sexual
contact between male and female freshmen, the assimilation of
women has been largely without incident.
After two years of reporting to the
government, VMI asked Kiser to dismiss the case in December.
The Justice Department claims it wrote a
letter to Kiser saying it would respond to VMI's motion by Jan.
20.
In the order he entered Friday, Kiser said
neither he nor the court ever received the letter. He dismissed
the case Jan. 15.
Five days later, the Justice Department filed
its motion asking him to reconsider. VMI had failed to provide
sufficient information to prove it was in compliance with the
Supreme Court ruling.
Kiser's dismissal was premature because VMI's
conversion to co-education is still in its inception, the motion
said. The government cites, among other things, statements by a
female cadet in The Roanoke Times that while women have been
admitted to VMI, their admission has not necessarily been
embraced.
If, after VMI's response to the government's
request for information, either party wants a hearing on the
matter, Kiser said he will hear arguments and decide whether to
grant the government's request to reopen the case.
More News On the Legal Front:
======================
From The Rockbridge Weekly:
Late Breaking News.........
Honts Dismisses Suit Against VMI Brought By Former
Football Coach...
Today's Top Story
Wednesday, January 20, 1999
The Rockbridge Weekly - Lexington, Virginia
"Sauce Good For Goose, Is Good For The Gander"
Rockbridge Circuit Court Judge George E. Honts, III uses a homey
phrase to remind plaintiff Bill Stewart that he chose not to
avail himself of due process rights offered him by VMI - and
thus, dismissed his lawsuit.
By David Grimes
Rockbridge County Circuit Court Judge George E. Honts, III
recently dismissed a million dollar plus lawsuit filed against
VMI by its former head football coach, William L. Stewart.
In a letter dated December 28, 1998 to the counsel of each party
involved, Honts wrote:
"This action comes on upon the demurrers of the Virginia
Military Institute (VMI), Josiah Bunting (Bunting), David Babb
(Babb), and W. E. Landsidle (Landsidle) to the claim of the
plaintiff, William E. Stewart (Stewart), alleging a lack of due
process in his dismissal as head football coach at VMI.
"Stewart, as football coach, was investigated for statements
made by him regarding a successful play in which a player
"high-stepped" his way to a touchdown. Stewart
chastised the player, saying in effect that the player should not
conduct himself in such a fashion as to cause himself to be
called "a nigger" or putting the coach into a position
of being called "white trash." Stewart alleges the
investigation was conducted "in secret," which we infer
to mean, without his knowledge.
On December 10, 1996, Babb advised Stewart he was "in
trouble." On December 11, 1996, Babb advised Stewart he had
two options, resign, with pay, or be fired. Apparently Stewart
made some indication he would resign, but did not do so. Stewart
was presented with a letter of resignation which he declined to
sign. On December 12, 1996, it is alleged, VMI announced
Stewart's resignation, and coupled that resignation with some
indication of the racist nature of his comments.
Stewart's contract and VMI policy provided for a pretermination
hearing upon demand. Demand must be made within 30 days of
termination, and the aggrieved party has the right to
representation by counsel. Stewart never made such a request or
demand for hearing.
Thus, Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532
(1985) is the controlling case. Loudermill states in part
"the tenured public employee is entitled to oral or written
notice of the charges against him, and explanation of the
employer's evidence, and an opportunity to present his side of
the story..." at 546. Such a hearing is not necessarily a
definitive resolution of the correctness of the discharge, but is
a safe guard against unfounded decisions.
Such a hearing, then, is a safeguard both to the employees and
the employer. Here, VMI, then in the throes of a gender-bias
action of considerable magnitude, is faced with comments that are
racist by innuendo, if not outright so, and whether acting out of
"political correctness" or in conformity with a policy
against racial discrimination, was not in a position to ignore.
"If the allegations were untrue, or if, by some means, the
words uttered were taken out of context or misunderstood, both
VMI and Stewart would benefit from such a pre-termination
hearing. Stewart had only to request or demand that he be given
the "opportunity to present his side of the story." He
chose not to do so. (italics ours)
As the quaint saying goes, "what is sauce for the goose is
also sauce for the gander." For Stewart to complain now that
his due process rights have been violated when he chose not to
exercise his own due process rights to a pretermination hearing
is without merit.
Accordingly, the demurrers of VMI, Bunting, Babb, and Landsidle
are sustained. The Office of the Attorney General is respectfully
requested to prepare an order in conformity herewith.
Stewart had filed the suit against VMI, Bunting, Babb and
Landsidle in September of 1998, asking for $1.3 million dollars
in damages.
Col. Mike Strickler, Director of Public Relations at VMI, told
the Rockbridge Weekly "this was a good ruling and we're glad
that this matter is now behind us".
VMI Basketball: It's Always Great to Beat El
Cid: Keydets are 10 - 11 overall and 7 - 4 in the conference.
Next up is ETSU today (home) at 1:00 PM.
Keydets Top Bulldogs In a Barnburner
STATE MEN
Tuesday, February 2, 1999
From Staff, Wire Reports
VMI 74, THE CITADEL 72
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Jason Bell scored 21 points, including a free
throw in overtime, to lead VMI over The Citadel in the Southern
Conference.
Bell's final foul shot came after Jonathan Kunz had hit a
3-pointer to bring The Citadel to 73-72.
Bell made his free throw with 3.4 seconds to go in overtime, and
Travis Cantrell's 20-foot jumper was off the mark at the buzzer.
VMI Wrestling: Yet another win over The Citadel.
From The AD Web Site:
V.M.I. 19 - THE CITADEL 18
149 Dan Wilson (V.M.I.) dec. Tony Nguyen (Cit.), 4-3
157 Robby Bell (Cit.) wb fall over Stuart Patterson (V.M.I.),
3:59
165 Gill Decher (V.M.I.) dec. Tommy Bell (Cit.), 9-4
174 Bobby Stew-art (Cit.) dec Brian Toney (V.M.I.), 6-4
184 Michael Regner (Cit.) dec. David Budlong (V.M.I.), 8-1
197 Isaac Moore (V.M.I.) wb technical fall over Ed Knote (Cit.),
25-9
285 Leslie Apedoe (V.M.I.) major dec. Chad Stephenson (Cit.),
14-5
125 Oliver Ruiz (V.M.I.) major dec. Justin Gainey (Cit.), 17-6
133 Chris Ellis (Cit.) dec. Tremayne Austin (V.M.I.), 6-4
141 Anthony Brooker (Cit.) dec. Frank Lucero (V.M.I.), 6-4
Wrestling Home Page
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VMI Tennis News:
From The SC web site:
February 4, 1999
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES PRESEASON TENNIS COACHES' POLLS
East
Tennessee State Top Men's Poll, Furman Favored by Women's Coaches
Asheville, N.C. — Furman women and East Tennessee State men
were favorites in the 1999 Southern Conference tennis coaches'
polls released today. For the first time in league history,
conference tournament champions will receive automatic bids to
the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Tournaments.
On the women's side, Furman was the unanimous choice for the top
spot. With freshman Megan Dunigan (#22 in Southeast) playing
first singles this season, Furman will be favored to repeat as
tournament champions this spring. UNC Greensboro finished second
in the poll with Chattanooga, Davidson and College of Charleston
close behind. East Tennessee State was tabbed sixth followed by
1998 regular-season champion Georgia Southern. Wofford,
Appalachian State and Western Carolina round out the poll.
East Tennessee State's men's garnered eight of the 11 top picks
after finishing the fall ranked 13th in the region. Last season's
tournament champion Chattanooga received two first-place votes to
finish second with UNC Greensboro placing third with the
remaining top selection. Spartan Alex Lehnhoff returns for his
senior season as the favorite at No. 1 singles, after playing for
Guatemala in Davis Cup competition last summer. Furman, who
finished the 1998 regular season undefeated, finished fourth in
the poll, followed by league-newcomer College of Charleston,
Davidson, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. The Ciatdel,
Wofford and VMI rounded out the poll.
This year, the Southern Conference Men's Tournament will be held
at Wofford College on April 15-18, while the Southern Conference
Women's Tournament will be at Furman University on April 15-18.
Southern Conference Preseason Coaches Men's Tennis Poll
1. East Tennessee State (8 first) 107 points
2. Chattanooga (2 first) 103 points
3. UNC Greensboro (1 first) 81 points
4. Furman 73 points
5. College of Charleston 70 points
6. Davidson College 64 points
7. Appalachian State 51 points
8. Georgia Southern 49 points
9. The Citadel 29 points
10. Wofford 20 points
11. VMI 12 points
For Those Who Yearn for the Dark Ages: Here's
the web site with a photo taken by Kathryn Wise...it is
marvelous. http://www.erols.com/thigginb/calendar/1998cal.htm
VMI Cyber Corps Logo: Thanks to all who provided
feedback regarding the Cyber Corps Logo. Feedback was
overwhelmingly positive. I recently spoke with a rep from VMI's
Athletic Department and he's sending me the requisite paperwork
for trademark stuff. I'm hopeful that polo and t-shirts will be
available shortly. Stay tuned. Who knows...this may be the next
fashion statement.
That's it for this week.
Yours in the Spirit,
RB Lane '75
Last Updated: October 11, 2009
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