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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040269
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RESPONSE `DISHEARTENS' VMI

The U.S. Justice Department's urging of the Supreme Court last month to stop Virginia Military Institute from denying admission to women is "disheartening," VMI lawyers wrote in a reply filed Monday in Washington.

"It is disheartening that the government would seek to impose coeducational conformity on American public education at a time when the urgency of reform is almost universally recognized,and when a growing body of evidence confirms the value of single-sex education for adolescents," VMI lawyers argued.

VMI asked the Supreme Court in December to hear the school's case in support of an all-male admissions policy, after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rehear the case. The Appeals Court's denial followed a three-judge appeals court panel's ruling that VMI's admissions policy faces constitutional problems unless Virginia offers the same educational options to women.

In response last month to VMI's Supreme Court appeal,the Justice Department argued that the school was discriminating unlawfully. The department urged the high court to stop VMI from banning women.

Justice Department lawyers argued in support of the Appeals Court decision. And in a footnote,they wrote that they wanted to reserve the argument that the Appeals Court erred in suggesting that Virginia has the option of creating a woman-only,VMI-type institution.

VMI lawyers contended in their reply that the government's arguments were contradictory.

The government "is willing to embrace a Court of Appeals decision whose rationale is artificial and unreasonable,while reserving the right to argue against that very rationale" if the court agrees to review the case, lawyers wrote.

Richard Willard,a Washington attorney representing VMI, said the government seemed ambivalent about the Appeals Court decision.

"It appears the government doesn't agree with the Court of Appeals' reasoning but still defends it in the Supreme Court," Willard said.

VMI lawyers also argued that if the Supreme Court failed to grant review,"the practical considerations confronting state and local governments may result in the elimination of public single-sex education as an option without the court ever having another opportunity to consider the issue."

VMI has garnered support from seven private woman's colleges and two women's organizations - Women for VMI and the Women's Washington Issues Network. VMI also received support from the former president of the Detroit Board of Education and the former president of the Detroit Urban League - both of whom supported the establishment of three all-male academies in the Detroit public school system.

VMI - which has 1,300 cadets in Lexington - and The Citadel in Charleston,S.C., are the nation's only all-male,state-supported schools.

The Citadel's admission policy also is under legal attack.

The Supreme Court could act on VMI's appeal,either granting or denying full review,within the next few weeks, Willard said. If the court accepts the case for review,it could be heard in the fall, he said.

by CNB