Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070107
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Harvey Sadow, chairman of the board of visitors, said after the meeting that no decisions were made. He characterized the meeting as a fact-gathering mission and said no options were ruled out.
"It would be inappropriate for me to suggest I favor any of the alternatives at this time," Sadow said.
He said the board may schedule another special meeting to discuss the issue.
Lawyers wanted to meet with the board before Monday, when a hearing is scheduled in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. The hearing will likely set a procedure for the remedy stage of this four-year case.
The hearing Monday will be the first major court proceeding since May, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear VMI's appeal of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Virginia must provide a military education for women substantially equivalent to the program VMI provides for men.
The court gave the state several options: admit women to VMI, become a private school or set up a parallel program elsewhere. It also left room for a fourth, creative option.
Some experts have said that there are no fourth options that would be acceptable to the U.S. Justice Department, which challenged VMI's policy on behalf of a Northern Virginia woman who was denied admission.
But they have said that VMI will be likely to search for that other option.
The appeals court returned the case to U.S. District Court Judge Jackson Kiser, who had upheld VMI's admissions policy.
The Justice Department has asked Kiser to order Gov. Douglas Wilder to submit a plan for opening the school to women as early as this fall. Kiser will meet with VMI lawyers Monday in Roanoke to discuss procedural matters, but it was unclear whether Kiser would rule on the Justice Department's request Monday.
Wilder and many state legislators have said the next step is up to the VMI board. The board can set admission policy, but intervention by Wilder and the General Assembly would be needed to sell the Lexington school to private interests or create a VMI-style program for women elsewhere.
VMI Superintendent Maj. Gen. John Knapp and Virginia Tech officials have informally discussed setting up a VMI-style program for women at the Blacksburg school, which has an ROTC program that includes women.
VMI and The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., are the only two state-supported all-male schools in the country.
Staff writer Madelyn Rosenberg also contributed to this story.
by CNB