Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993 TAG: 9305310029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON and MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
While Mary Sue Terry, the Democratic nominee for governor, called last week for a coed VMI, interviews with Wilder and ranking legislators found no sentiment for pursuing her suggestion.
Harvey Sadow, board president of the state-supported military school in Lexington, has called a special board meeting on Tuesday in Richmond to discuss the institute's legal strategy in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal last week to hear a VMI appeal.
The high court's unsigned order left intact an appeals court decision that VMI must admit women or become private, or that a parallel program for women must be established at state expense elsewhere. U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser will confer with VMI and U.S. Justice Department lawyers before ordering a specific solution.
After three years in court, VMI leaders seem as determined as ever to fight. The board can set admissions policy, but intervention by the governor and the General Assembly would be needed to sell VMI to private interests or create a VMI-style program for women at another school.
Returning Friday from a trip to Africa, Wilder disputed Attorney General Stephen D. Rosenthal's suggestion that he and the assembly have some decisions to make about the case. Wilder said the burden is on the board to assist Kiser.
"The state has no intention of doing anything until the court has finally acted. I have said that consistently. I don't know what the court wants us to do . . .," Wilder said.
The two lawmakers whose districts include the school also shrugged off action.
"The General Assembly will honor the time-honored tradition of staying away from this thing until the court makes a final decision," said Del. Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs. "I've not seen sentiment for intervening."
"It seems to me the next move is up to Kiser," said Sen. Frank Nolen, D-Augusta.
Nolen said he'd like to "leave things the way they are," at VMI.
"But if that's not an option, then I'd say offer ladies the same thing at [Virginia Tech]. We could put up a dorm of all ladies and have a class of all ladies. Maybe we could send a couple of these VMI professors down there to teach a couple of classes," Nolen said.
Virginia Tech has a coed ROTC program. Even before the Supreme Court declined to hear VMI's appeal, VMI's superintendent was eyeing Tech's program as a possible way out.
Maj. Gen. Stanton Musser, commandant of Tech's cadet corps, confirmed last week that he'd had informal discussions with Maj. Gen. John Knapp, VMI's superintendent, about possibly toughening his program to match VMI's. Musser said he'd be "more than willing to do that" if "Kiser or the state or whoever" decides Tech is the place for a comparable women's program.
A program for women at Tech is "the simplest, least traumatic way to effect the court's decision," said Sen. Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg, chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee.
Others, including Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, questioned whether there's enough demand by women for a military-style program to justify building a new school.
No women applied to VMI this year, but officials reported inquiries from nearly 150.
Former state Sen. Emilie Miller of Fairfax, who sought legislatively as early as 1988 to force women on VMI, said Friday that she and women's groups would haul VMI back to court to challenge a separate program or school for women.
"The best solution for VMI is to go private or accept women," said Miller, who blames the loss of her Senate seat in 1991 on contributions to her opponent by VMI alumni. "The best solution for the alumni may be to go private."
Several state officials, including state Education Secretary James Dyke, said no calculations have been made for the cost of any of the options outlined by the court.
Just before leaving office in January 1990, former Gov. Gerald Baliles proposed giving VMI $160,000 to renovate a barracks for women "in the event the U.S. Justice Department finds that the institute's admissions policies constitute unlawful discrimination."
The money was stripped from the budget in the Senate.
Miller said former state Sen. Elmon Gray, D-Sussex, a VMI graduate and booster, once told her it would take $500 million to buy the school.
Tax records in Lexington and Rockbridge County show that VMI's 140-acre campus and buildings are assessed at $92 million. Another 185 acres used for training grounds in Rockbridge County are assessed at more than $1.2 million.
Lt. Col. Mike Stricker, a VMI spokesman, said going private would be difficult.
He said one-third of the school's current annual budget of $27 million comes from the state's general fund. Another $4.5 million comes from investments and dividends generated by the institute's endowment, which totals more than $100 million.
Surveys have listed VMI's alumni as the most generous of any public college nationwide. About 55 percent of the alumni donate to the university. Last year's unrestricted gifts from alumni totaled $2.6 million.
"That's the kind of loyalty that VMI stimulates," Sadow said. "I hope to lead the team to an appropriate solution . . . But don't ask me what appropriate is."
by CNB