Most women at the college were still sleeping, but the freshman class of the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership was up, dressed, in step and ready to take morning physical training. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can do it, ladies. Yes, Virginia, VWIL is carrying on. And it's more than a vestigial feature of the lost battle to keep Virginia Military Institute all-male, more than an unsuccessful cure for a disease that no longer exists.
Big questions remain, however.
Those questions didn't concern freshman Shari Cheeks as she ran relays on the frosted grass at 7 a.m. Her gangly arms flopped at her sides. The future of VWIL is a heady topic for Cheeks and her sister cadets, and one they rarely consider. They simply trust that VWIL will always be here. There wasn't much to VWIL when Trimble Bailey arrived as part of the inaugural class in the fall of 1995.