PEC Update, January 12, 2007

In this update, we want to thank all of you who have made PEC the strong and vibrant organization that it is today. Each of you has done everything necessary to bring our group from its early, email beginnings to a formidable force. We have nearly 500 individual donors, close to 800 supporters who have signed up on our web site to receive information, and we have raised more than $175,000 thus far! We are eagerly awaiting hearings on both lawsuits, and the word about PEC is spreading to give hope to the many alumnae who thus far have believed that the fight is over. We still have many more people to reach with our message, but we know that we can count on you to continue to spread the word of our efforts. This update provides information about the Richmond Summit held last week and the upcoming hearings for the lawsuits on January 23rd in Lynchburg.

The Richmond Summit:

On Friday, January 5, 2007, PEC hosted a facilitated meeting of more than 50 vocal, active leaders, all of whom oppose the decision by the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon Woman's College to implement coeducation. Another 20 participated by teleconference from around the country. The group gathered for a six-hour summit meeting in Richmond, Virginia.

The meeting was initiated in an effort to unite the most visible opponents to the College's coed strategic plan. The Summit involved both an information-sharing component and a strategy session to plan future efforts of the group and prepare for upcoming hearings in the two lawsuits filed against the College.

Those who participated in the summit are representative of the thousands of Randolph-Macon Woman's College alumnae who have expressed displeasure with the Board of Trustees' September 9th decision to approve coeducation beginning in Fall 2007. Those in attendance left the meeting committed to taking whatever actions necessary to restore our Woman's College and preserve it for future generations of women.

Facilitating the meeting was Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a former Virginia Chief Deputy Attorney General, and former interim President of Chatham College, a women's college in Pennsylvania. Meeting participants included: former Presidents and Trustees of R-MWC, former Presidents of other universities and colleges, PEC Board members, current and former members of the R-MWC Alumnae Association Board of Directors, distinguished current and emeritus faculty members, major donors, regional and class alumnae leaders, and museum curators, along with current students and their parents. Many of the participants are successful professionals in the fields of law, higher education, investment banking, accounting, finance, journalism, marketing and public relations and have offered to contribute their skills and resources to preserve R-MWC as a woman's college.

Carol Curcio Lang, '68, PEC's new fundraising chair, discussed plans to send out an official solicitation for contributions to help fund the legal action. Carol emphasized the urgent need for financial support to reach the group's new target of $500,000 by June 30, 2007. Even though no formal fundraising campaign (except these periodic updates) is currently underway, $177,000 has already been contributed to fund our efforts.

Hearings on January 23, 2007, in both lawsuits:

We are now ready for our first fight. All of the pleadings are now filed with the Court and can be found on the PEC website. The College's attorneys will have the opportunity to file additional rebuttals to our arguments, and we will post those when they are issued, but the arguments of both sides are now represented in the pleadings filed to date. You may find it helpful to read these pleadings as quite a bit of interesting information can be found in them. For example, in the Memorandum in Support of Defendant's Demurrer for the contract case the College argues for almost three pages that the Honor Code applies only to students – not to the Board of Trustees or R-MWC's administrators. All of these documents can now be found in the new section on the PEC website "Legal Pleadings" under "Our Work."

The first hearings in both cases are scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on January 23, 2007, in the Lynchburg Circuit Court, at 900 Court Street in Lynchburg, Virginia. There are only 50 seats in the courtroom, so space in the building will be limited. Nevertheless, we hope that a large contingent of current students and alumnae will gather in front of the courthouse. It will be important for the Judge to see the outpouring of support in favor of preserving our Woman's College, even if we all cannot be present to hear the arguments.

We also want you to know that supporters of PEC in Lynchburg have reserved the fellowship hall of the First Unitarian Church, Monument Terrace, which is next door to the Lynchburg Circuit Court. You may view a map of Downtown Lynchburg that shows the Church location (and, the Court's location, since they are close by) at the following web link: http://www.uulynchburg.org/Facilities.html. Directions to the Church and parking instructions are also included on that website. We would like to know how many of you will join us, so if you could send us an email at gail@preserveeducationalchoice.org to RSVP, it will help us to plan the day.

We hope that you will encourage your fellow alumnae to gather with us both before and after the hearings at the church, and in front of the courthouse. PEC Board members will be present, together with a number of alumnae, students, parents, and friends, before the hearings, beginning at 12:00 noon on Jan. 23. Our friends will include several former trustees, and perhaps a few notable others.

After the hearings, we will once again gather in the fellowship hall of the church for a "debriefing" session for those who cannot attend the hearing, or who don't get a seat in the courthouse. We anticipate that the follow-up session will begin between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., but the exact time will of course depend upon the length of the hearings. Wyatt and the other attorneys on our legal team, Barrett Pope and Halliday Moncure, will be present for the debriefing session to give you a first-hand view of the events of the day to the extent they are able. We think you will find it rewarding to hear Wyatt Durrette speak about the cases. Wyatt energized the crowd who met at the Summit in Richmond last Friday, and we think you will enjoy hearing this gifted lawyer plead our case. He has come to believe in our cause with his whole heart, and it shows.

We have spoken with the Holiday Inn Select in Lynchburg. In the event that you would like to stay at the Holiday Inn that night, the hotel has informed us that they will provide the standing "Randolph-Macon Woman's College" rate of $75/night for our group (the normal rate is $119), and you simply need to ask the reservation specialist for that rate. There is no block of rooms reserved, but the hotel indicated that there is ample space in the hotel at this time. Parking in the Holiday Inn deck during daytime hours is generally available and the rate is $2/day, but we have been warned that availability might be limited during working hours, so please plan ahead. Parking in Holiday Inn deck in the evening is free, and the hotel expects no problem with availability after working hours, so if you cannot join us before the hearings, please feel free to join us after work if you are in the area.

Once again PEC would like to express our gratitude to the eight student plaintiffs as well as the two donor plaintiffs who have so valiantly stood for what is right in this effort. They serve all of us in this most important capacity, and we admire the courage they have shown even in the face of all the pressure that the college and others are placing on them.

We would also like to thank all of the financial supporters of PEC who have made these lawsuits possible. Every donation counts and we simply could not pursue these lawsuits without this financial backing. To date, we have nearly 500 donors, and over 800 people have signed up to receive our updates. We have received over $175,000 to date. If you have not given or you have not given recently please consider giving today. As always, you can make a donation via PayPal on the PEC website (www.preserveeducationalchoice.org) or you can send a check to:

Preserve Educational Choice, Inc.
P.O. Box 29612
Richmond, VA 23242

Please continue to spread the word among your friends that the fight is not over; it is just beginning!

Randolph-Macon Woman's College can survive -- those who attended the January 5th meeting in Richmond felt the spirit of R-MWC living in that room. The energy was infectious and we want to spread it to everyone who has lost hope. If you need a real positive experience, please gather with us in Lynchburg! We can bring back the spirit that is and always has been our College, and when you feel it, you will know, as we did in Richmond, that our College is alive and well in our ranks, and it can live again on Rivermont Avenue with all of your support!

Again, our thanks to you all, and we hope to see each of you on January 23!

Vita abundantior,

PEC Board

Gail Ballou (R-MWC '64)
Carol Curcio Lang (R-MWC '68)
Diane U. Montgomery (R-MWC '85)
Anne Yastremski (R-MWC '05)
Martha McClerkin Durnett (R-MWC '85)

Return to PEC Updates