Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993 TAG: 9305080221
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: HERBERT LOWE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
College officials said they didn't realize they were violating such laws until the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights told them.
The civil-rights office did not penalize the colleges but made them promise to comply with the laws or risk losing federal money.
Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Radford University, Hampton University and Virginia Commonwealth were among 22 schools nationwide told last year that they violated laws against gender bias, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, a weekly education newspaper.
Hampton, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and Southside Virginia Community College in Alberta were among 46 schools told to correct violations against people with disabilities; and Hampton and VCU were among eight that discriminated because of race or ethnicity.
Typically, when the civil-rights office investigates complaints, it checks on the school's compliance with all laws, regardless of whether related to the complaints.
At Virginia Western, the complaint was "pretty silly and we don't know how it got to the proportions that it did," said David C. Hanson, director of instructional support services.
A male nursing student complained that the college allowed him to bathe only male patients in its hospital training program, while female students could bathe men and women.
The civil-rights office agreed that the student's rights were violated. The college now has a written policy treating male and female students the same.
"We still respect the right of the patient to request a same-sex student," Hanson said.
At Radford, after investigating a sexual harassment case, the civil-rights office told the school to put a more specific nondiscrimination statement in its publications - "one that starts off with, `We do not discriminate,' " college spokeswoman Deborah Brown said.
Radford also was told to set up a grievance procedure for sex-discrimination complaints, as it had already done for harassment.
At VCU, a learning-disabled student complained that the school failed to give him adequate tutors, unfairly stopped his work-study funding and discouraged the student newspaper from printing an article about financial aid.
The civil-rights office ruled the student's allegations unfounded. But it told the university to update its financial-aid handbook. VCU President Eugene Trani said the new anti-discrimination information will be in new handbooks next month.
At Hampton, a temporary employee alleged that he was fired in August 1991 for being disabled.
When a supervisor saw the employee lying down while painting, the man admitted having two orthopedic nails in his right hip that prevented him from standing for long periods. The civil-rights office ruled that Hampton was right to fire him because he never mentioned his physical problems on his application and could not do the job adequately.
But Hampton was faulted for asking applicants about handicaps unrelated to the job and about their marital status. Hampton's job applications also failed to include required information about anti-discrimination laws.
"We redid the application entirely," said Charlotte Pearson, the university's director of personnel.
At Southside Virginia, a disabled inmate at the Greensville Correctional Center felt he was unfairly barred from taking a course.
The inmate was restricted to the infirmary and, according to jail rules, could not enroll in courses held in another building. Because the college doesn't offer correspondence courses, the school had to agree to refer disabled inmates to schools that offer correspondence courses.
by CNB