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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990                   TAG: 9004180676
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: EVENING  
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

VMI BOARD MEMBERS REAPPOINTED

They are Thomas N. Downing of Newport News, Brig. Gen. Elizabeth P. Hoisington of Arlington, Robert Q. Marston of Alachua, Fla., and A. Courtland Spotts III of Richmond.

For several weeks, Wilder had left open the possibility that he might replace the four board members with people who favor overturning the admissions policy and admitting women students to the 150-year-old school in Lexington.

Wilder has refused to say whether he supports or opposes VMI's male-only admissions policy, which is under challenge from the U.S. Justice Department as discriminatory.

Many who agree with the Justice Department on the issue had hoped the governor would grasp the opportunity to signal that he wants the school integrated by bumping Downing, Hoisington, Marston and Spotts off the board.

Sen. Emilie Miller, D-Fairfax, who earlier this year led an unsuccessful effort in the General Assembly to force VMI to open its doors to women, said she was "very surprised and very disappointed" that Wilder had not replaced the four members.

"What are we, a bunch of wimps around here and nobody's going to take a stand?" she said.

Downing, Hoisington, Marston and Spotts were among numerous people reappointed to various state posts by former Gov. Gerald Baliles as his term was ending in January. But because of a parliamentary foul-up, legislative confirmation of the Baliles appointees was held up, giving Wilder the chance to replace them with people of his own choosing.

Wilder has already snubbed some former Baliles aides and close allies by refusing to give them the posts to which the former governor had appointed them.

However, in a list of appointments that he sent down to the General Assembly today, Wilder went ahead and named several of Baliles' associates whose reappointments had been in doubt. Among those were Baliles' former press secretary, Chris Bridge, who Wilder named to the board of the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

The controversy over VMI's admissions began when an unidentified Northern Virginia teen-ager told authorities that she would like to attend VMI.