RESTON, Va. -- The journalism conference intended to provide examples of ways in which newspapers are striving to improve their editorial pages. But when the discussion turned to whether those improvements should include making editorial boards as racially diverse as the communities they serve, I wondered what lessons could be drawn down the highway from here by the example of 13 female cadets at the Virginia Military Institute.
They made history last week as the first women cadets to graduate from the once all-male school, which went to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay that way -- and lost. Four years ago, 30 young women joined the Class of 2001 for a regimen of academic rigor, physical endurance and mental abuse. Some didn't make it, dropping out or transferring to other schools. Yet their attrition rate was comparable to that of male cadets -- 230 graduates out of an original class of 430.
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What distinguishes the 13 young women -- and the one other who graduated early last December -- is that, by all accounts, they did everything the men were required to do. That's a radical departure even from the policy at the federal military academies, which tailor requirements of physical fitness tests to accommodate for perceived differences in the physical strength of men and women.
Not so at VMI, which declared itself a "no-coddling'' zone. The women had to do the same 60 sit-ups in two minutes, the same 1 1/2-mile run in less than 12 minutes. No exceptions. No excuses.
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"The country watched for you to make mistakes,'' VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III told the graduates. "And you made none.''
Diversity was on the agenda a few days earlier at a conference for more than 20 editorial writers and editors sponsored by the American Press Institute. The news is, generally, not good.
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Just as the population of non-whites in American cities is going up, the percentage in the nation's newsrooms is going down. According to a recent survey of nearly 1,000 newspapers conducted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 698 minority journalists left the business last year while only 600 took their first full-time newspaper jobs.
That has some of the more far-sighted editors scrambling to figure out the problem and come up with a way to fix it. This is admirable. They need only be sure that they don't do more harm than good.
Done right, pursuing diversity on editorial and news pages is a "win-win'' that offers benefits that go beyond those individuals who may get jobs and promotions. The newspapers get fresh voices, different perspectives and a transfusion of new blood.
Done wrong, it can be a half-hearted and self-serving attempt to put forward the appearance that these institutions are more diverse -- and the people who work in them more progressive -- than they really are. Meanwhile, it is business as usual.
If the goal is really to provide opportunities to those who have been historically denied them, then the best way to accomplish it is to treat those who are now welcomed onto the field with enough respect to demand they play the game by the same rules as everyone else.
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Some may worry that pursuing diversity at newspapers will compromise quality. That's ancient thinking.
After years of broken barriers and expanded opportunity, those who have genuinely committed to diversifying their newsrooms now have the benefit of being able to draw upon a pool of accomplished, talented, well-educated Hispanic, Asian and African American prospects. All they need is courage, ingenuity -- and foresight to tap it.
As at VMI: No exceptions. No excuses.
