Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 27, 1993                   TAG: 9303270272
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMEN'S COLLEGES AID VMI SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION BENEFITS DEFENDED

Seven private women's colleges, including Hollins, filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court this week supporting single-sex education.

Hollins, Sweet Briar College in Amherst County, Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg and Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., filed a brief asking the high court to "reaffirm the value of single-sex education, hold firmly and clearly that it has its place in the American higher education system."

The four colleges asked the court to rule as it did in a 1982 case, "that educationally successful institutions . . . may constitutionally offer single-sex education."

Lawyers for the state-supported VMI filed a petition with the Supreme Court in January, asking justices to determine the constitutionality of the school's 153-year-old single-sex admissions policy.

The petition followed a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling three months earlier that didn't overturn the policy, but said that the school's admissions policy faced constitutional problems unless Virginia offered the same educational options for women.

Mary Baldwin College in Staunton; Southern Virginia College for Women in Buena Vista (formerly Southern Seminary); and Saint Mary's College in Raleigh, N.C., filed a brief this week expressing a fear of "uncertainty" that court rulings on VMI and other cases could jeopardize all-female private schools.

"Women's colleges cannot continue to exist if the legal system refuses to recognize the legitimacy of benefits of single-sex education for women," those three colleges said in their brief.

Retired Marine Col. John W. Ripley, president of Southern Virginia College for Women, once was VMI's Naval ROTC commander and as professor of naval science.

Throughout the case, VMI's attorneys have argued that private schools, which receive some public grants and aid, could be in jeopardy if the 153-year-old institute loses the case.

The colleges' briefs formed a consensus among private women's colleges in Virginia and were the first appearance of support from private single-sex colleges since the legal flap over VMI's admissions policy began three years ago.

The briefs also are the first filed in support of VMI from any institution or organization, said Anne Marie Whittemore, an attorney with the Richmond firm representing VMI.

"We very much appreciate their support of VMI's petition, the fact that they are urging, as is VMI, the value of single-sex education," Whittemore said.

Some information for this story was provided by the Associated Press.