ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993                   TAG: 9312150141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


MARY BALDWIN PLAN BACKED

If it's OK with the courts, it's OK with the committee that oversees higher education in the state.

That was the message from Richmond on Tuesday, where the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia agreed to support the so-called Mary Baldwin plan, the leadership program for women proposed to help bring Virginia Military Institute's all-male admission policy in line with the law.

"It has nothing to do with construction of the plan, nor does it have anything to do with approval or disapproval of the plan," said council member Paul Goldman of Richmond. He has been concerned that the plan, unless it evolves into a more military program closer to that found at VMI, may not pass constitutional muster.

"[The vote] says after the courts and everybody get through it, we'll implement it," Goldman said.

Plans for the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Mary Baldwin are still in the making, being crafted primarily by faculty members of the private women's college. The program will include leadership-style course work, a corps of women within the Mary Baldwin student body and an arrangement for students to leave Mary Baldwin to study engineering, a strong part of the VMI curriculum.

The council Tuesday voted to support the notion of student transfers for engineering studies, because Mary Baldwin doesn't offer the discipline. The students would spend two years at Mary Baldwin, and three years studying engineering.

However, according to a statement released Tuesday, that means the women won't receive state appropriations as high as those for VMI cadets. They would be paid for only two years, the amount of time they are in the program at Mary Baldwin.

"The amount paid to [Mary Baldwin] per student enrolled in the [leadership program] might more appropriately be the average per-student general fund appropriation to the four-year, non-doctoral, state-supported institutions," the council said.

Appropriations last year were $5,600 per VMI cadet.

"Mary Baldwin is a private institution. The point is: What part of the program should be publicly funded?" said council Chairman Hugh Patterson. "If you fund the program at Mary Baldwin, it's probably more appropriate to use a different comparison of funding source to make sure people are being treated equally.

"What we've seen is an architectural concept of the plan, and that's probably all right because that's probably where they are," he said. "We're going to need to put flesh on the bone of the plan, review it, see how it pans out, and how it is to be implemented.

"What we don't say is, we are not opining or discussing the constitutionality of this plan. That's the sole province of the court.

"Should the court adopt that plan, we certainly want to cooperate."

Under a proposal unveiled in September, the private VMI Foundation would endow the leadership program with $6.9 million - if the courts approve. The state, meantime, would kick in an as-yet-undetermined appropriation, as it does for VMI cadets.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond last year sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Roanoke for resolution, with instructions to VMI to admit women, go private, come up with a parallel program for women or find another solution.

Hearings on the plan begin in February.



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