By Sarah Bloom
This year, Washington and Lee University
celebrates it’s 20th year of admitting women. At neighboring Virginia
Military Institute, however, women like Cadet Christina Staulnaker are
still paving the way for females.
A military academy that has maintained an all-male enrollment since
before the civil war, VMI chose to admit women a mere eight years ago.
Captain Jackie Tugman was one of the first women cadets, a graduate of
the second class of women at VMI. Today, she is the head female
recruitment officer, working diligently to increase the number of female
cadets and graduates.
Cadet Staulnaker is one of Tugman’s women, a member of the class of
2009. Staulnaker is one of 52 women to enter the RAT line this year. Her
class nearly doubled the total number of women enrolled at VMI.
“I had a little bit of doubt" about enrolling at VMI, said Staulnaker.
“There were going to be so many males there and I wasn’t sure how well
females are accepted, but after coming I had no doubts.”
The preparation to admit women at VMI required the addition of new
facilities like restrooms, showers and a number of NCAA Division I athletic
teams. Captain Tugman maintains, however, that women receive equal
treatment. Unlike several other military academies, VMI requires that
women meet the same physical and academic standards as their male
counterparts.
“A very positive thing that I’ve noticed,” said Captain Tugman on the
progression of the university’s acceptance of women, “is that the
interaction between the male and the female students had become a lot
more accepted and it happens on a regular basis. Dating happens.”
VMI would like to have approximately 200 women in its 1,600
member corps--though no cap will be placed on women’s admissions. That
said, Captain Tugman maintains that this will not be easy, that it takes
a “special type of girl” to enroll and graduate from VMI.
“She’s got to be an individual, she’s got to want something that not
everyone else wants, she needs to want a challenge, and she needs to be
in really good shape physically, she needs to be a really good
student because academically VMI is very challenging,” said Tugman .
To recruit women who will succeed and stay at VMI, Tugman encourages
the women to visit, and then aggressively questions them about their
willingness to challenge themselves, to perform, and finally to dedicate
themselves to the ideals of VMI.
Watch Sarah Bloom's interview with VMI Cadet Christina Staulnaker:
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming
Editing supervisor: Prof. Pamela Luecke
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd