Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 28, 1993 TAG: 9309280334
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A proposal designed to rescue Virginia Military Institute from its legal battle has drawn support, sheer puzzlement and charges that it cannot pass constitutional muster.
The proposal - a plan that establishes a military-style educational program for women at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton - was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. The plan will not reach open court until a hearing Jan. 6 before U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser.
If Kiser finds the plan unacceptable, "it leaves VMI and the state between a rock and a hard place," said Tom Morris, president of Emory & Henry College, political analyst and VMI alumnus.
One option might be Richmond lawyer Sylvia Clute's proposal to set up a VMI-style program for women at Fort Monroe in Hampton, "but it is obviously not one that has found any support," Morris said. "I suspect the Mary Baldwin proposal is VMI's best shot.
"But I don't think anyone is pretending that the Mary Baldwin program is comparable to the military experience at VMI," he said. "Basically, the issue is whether it is an acceptable alternative."
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had given the state three options to satisfy the legal fight over the state-supported Lexington school's all-male admissions policy: admit women, go private or find a parallel program for women.
Gov. Douglas Wilder approved the Mary Baldwin proposal Saturday, shortly after it was unanimously endorsed by VMI's board of visitors. He had been ordered to approve a solution before VMI submitted its proposal to the court.
Morris believes Wilder's endorsement enhances the chances of Kiser's accepting the proposal.
The plan allows VMI to remain all-male but to become part of a Virginia Corps of Cadets, in which students could choose either an all-male military school at VMI, an all-women's military program at Mary Baldwin or a coed program at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
The VMI Foundation, a private group of alumni that has bankrolled the three-year legal fight, will give $6.9 million to Mary Baldwin to establish the program, to be called Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership.
The program would start upon General Assembly approval and exhaustion of all appeals.
If Kiser accepts the plan and the U.S. Justice Department - which brought suit in 1990 against the state, VMI's board of visitors and others to force VMI to end its all-male admissions policy - is not satisfied, it could appeal to the Fourth Circuit. If the Justice Department opts not to appeal, then the plan would stand, a lawyer familiar with the case said.
Clute - who is seeking the Democratic nomination in next year's U.S. Senate race - stands by her contention that the only real solution is her proposal to set up a "sister school" at Fort Monroe.
"I don't believe [the Mary Baldwin program] is going to pass constitutional muster," she said Monday. "It seems like they're trying to buy time [rather] than come up with a serious proposal. What they have to do is the same thing for women that they do for men if it is their choice not to let women attend VMI."
Establishing a women's military academy at Fort Monroe "clearly would meet the test," she said. "The [Mary Baldwin proposal] is not going to. It's going to be lost in the dust."
Clute proposed Fort Monroe because it is to close due to defense cutbacks.
A.E. Dick Howard, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said the notion that separate institutions could fulfill the court's mandate has long bemused him.
"I confess that that approach puzzles me a bit because it means that a form of separate but equal is acceptable in gender cases where it surely would not be permitted were the subject race," Howard said.
"But if the court is going to permit [that], then the Mary Baldwin proposal strikes me as a creative way of meeting the court mandate."
Mary Baldwin is distinctive among Virginia's private liberal arts colleges in shaping new and creative ways to offer programs, Howard said.
"I admire Mary Baldwin's rather innovative role in higher education," he said. "Assuming the court allows this arrangement, Mary Baldwin will be a very good partner."
Monday, some VMI cadets applauded the proposal for maintaining the school's all-male tradition. That the VMI Foundation would spend $6.9 million to do so is of minor concern to them.
"It's worth it to keep the courts off our back," said Bob Matson, a firstclassman, or senior. "If you let [women] in, it would destroy the tradition. It's basically spending seven million dollars to save VMI."
Dustin Devore, who as first battalion commander is the third highest-ranking cadet at VMI, said the school has never argued that women couldn't handle its rigorous regimen.
"Our argument is VMI is a unique institution that would be changed for the worse if women came," he said.
Devore spent last weekend at West Point in New York, where VMI played a football game. West Point has a corps that is about 10 percent women.
"They're having lots of problems with [gender] integration that the leadership won't let them discuss," he said. "But in private, it's a big topic there. The plebe system at the military academies has been watered down to accommodate women.
"Keeping VMI all male will allow us to maintain a rigorous rat line."
George Allen - the Republican candidate for governor who had said he would try to protect VMI's all-male tradition and offer women a military education at another college in Virginia - "enthusiastically" supports the proposed program at Mary Baldwin.
"Upon review of the proposal, it is my conclusion that the goal of this academic program is to provide a viable option for women who seek an educational experience similar to the all-male program at VMI," Allen said in a statement released Sunday.
VMI's single-sex education program "in one which has served the commonwealth of Virginia, as well as our nation, well. But that type of educational experience should be made available to women as well," Allen said.
Monday, Allen's Democratic opponent candidate, Mary Sue Terry, stood by her position that the most cost-effective solution would be to admit women to VMI.
Correspondent Leigh Allen contributed information for this story.
\ TIMETABLE
VMI PLAN
Monday-Proposed remedial plan submitted in U.S. District Court in Danville.
Nov. 12-Deadline for Justice Department to respond to proposed plan.
Dec. 30-Deadline for all prehearing motions and memoranda to be served, for parties to identify and exchange exhibits, and for parties to identify witnesses who will be called to testify at court hearing.
Jan. 6-Court hearing on proposed plan.
by CNB