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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 10, 1991                   TAG: 9102110266
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROTECTIONS/ TECH OPENS UMBRELLA FOR ITS GAYS

VIRGINIA TECH is extending to homosexuals among its faculty, staff, student body and applicants the same kind of protections afforded at Radford University and UVa within the past year. With the signature of President James McComas, Tech's admissions and employment policy will say that the university does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, politics or "sexual orientation."

The move's significance is debatable. Civil rights for gays and lesbians are not written into law in most places. Tech's practices probably conform already to its rewritten policy.

But if nothing else, this serves as a reminder of how tortuous has been the nation's path since a group of white males proclaimed in Philadelphia in 1776 "that all Men are created equal . . . ." The effort to bring homosexuals into Tech's policy statement is said to have started a decade ago. Not a lot of enthusiasm could be mustered for it until more gays and lesbians felt safe to "come out." Now they are a more visible and active presence on campus.

There remains a joker in the deck, evinced by the suggestion from one Tech faculty member that the policy statement be made simpler and more inclusive so that the university wouldn't unintentionally discriminate against another minority by failing to mention it.

At some point, solicitude approaches satire. Are left-handed tea-drinkers discriminated against because most people are right-handed and prefer coffee or sodas?

James Madison University president Ronald Carrier, among others, is rightly concerned that some groups may assume victim status as the basis for claims against the institution, the system or whatever.

Rights are not the same as entitlements. Not every kind of minority is due its own employment counselor or other special treatment, for example.

An atmosphere of tolerance is crucial at institutions of higher education. But the proliferation of political activist groups - each with its own demands, grievances and agenda - can be divisive and can contradict the civility they supposedly seek. Ultimately, they may detract from the overall mission of an institution of higher learning.

Fortunately, Virginia's schools have largely avoided this kind of extremism.

by CNB