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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 13, 1994                   TAG: 9401130140
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COURT ASKED TO BLOCK VMI-PLAN CHANGES

The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser to prohibit VMI from introducing any changes in court Feb. 9-11, when Kiser is to hear arguments on whether the plan meets a constitutional test.

"The defendants are waiting until, perhaps, the eve of trial - if not the trial itself - to showcase the mechanics of the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership," government attorneys said in a motion filed Tuesday in federal court in Roanoke.

VMI attorney William G. Broaddus said he could not comment on the motion or on the Justice Department's claims until a response is filed next week.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered state-supported VMI to either admit women, go private or establish a comparable program for women elsewhere. VMI responded in September with a plan to establish a leadership program 35 miles away at Mary Baldwin College, a private women's school in Staunton.

The Justice Department, which challenged VMI's all-male admissions policy on behalf of a Northern Virginia woman, contends the plan fails to protect women's constitutional right to equal education. The government wants the Lexington school to admit women.

Since the plan was submitted, several legal scholars and Paul Goldman, a member of the State Council of Higher Education, have predicted it won't pass constitutional muster as it stands.

Justice Department attorneys said VMI witnesses who will testify next month admitted in depositions that the Mary Baldwin plan is simply an outline and that details, such as military training and adversarial teaching methods, will be filled in later.