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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990                   TAG: 9005020679
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WILDER BLASTED ON VMI

The federal government says Gov. Douglas Wilder is violating the U.S. Constitution by failing to use his powers to open tax-supported Virginia Military Institute to qualified women.

In papers filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, the Justice Department claimed Wilder is partly responsible for the "continuing discriminatory admission policy" at the Lexington school.

The Justice Department, which has sued to force the admission of women at VMI, made the allegations in response to Wilder's recent effort to free himself from the government's discrimination suit against VMI.

The department's response was not unexpected, said Laura Dillard, Wilder's press secretary. Wilder has not made a decision on whether to respond, she said.

Wilder, who took office in January as the nation's first black elected governor, has refused to state his views on the controversy surrounding the 151-year-old, male-only VMI. He has said his views are not a key in the litigation of the case, which is being defended by Attorney General Mary Sue Terry.

But the Justice Department's latest filing said Wilder's arguments about his lack of responsibility are "at best, disingenuous."

The department said Wilder, as chief executive officer of Virginia, "clearly shares responsibility for this continuing discriminatory admission policy . . . Here, the governor has failed to exercise that authority in a manner consistent with the Constitution."

The department said Wilder should remain as a defendant in the lawsuit because he would play a vital role in correcting VMI's "discriminatory admission policy."

Wilder last month reappointed four members of VMI's Board of Visitors, which has voted to maintain the male-only policy.

The department said the "appointment of those supportive of the discriminatory policy has resulted in the policy's perpetuation."

The department, acting on a complaint from an unidentified high school coed from Northern Virginia, filed suit this year against the state. Terry and the VMI Foundation Inc. filed their own suits asking the courts to uphold the policy.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled June 4 in federal court in Roanoke.

by CNB