Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994 TAG: 9401270300
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Allen's statement in favor of the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership, now in the planning stage, was filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke by Attorney General Jim Gilmore.
"The plan offers women a unique opportunity to receive leadership training and character development in a single-gender educational setting that promises to produce graduates whose education and training will prepare them as well for leadership positions as the graduates of VMI," Allen said in his statement.
Wednesday, newly elected Republican Gilmore formally took over the legal defense of the state, Allen and the State Council for Higher Education in the complex 3-year-old case. Because of conflicting stands within the Wilder administration, Gilmore's predecessor, Mary Sue Terry, had passed those duties to special counsel.
In papers filed with the court, Gilmore said November's election solved Terry's conflict.
"VMI is on the right track," Gilmore said. "The conflict that previously existed in this case is now gone."
Also weighing in with his support was Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.
Virginia's top-level support of the plan comes as the U.S. Justice Department and VMI's attorneys prepare for hearings Feb. 9-11 that will examine the constitutionality of the women's leadership institute. The plan was designed as one of three options offered to VMI and the state by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond a year ago, after the court found publicly funded VMI's males-only admission policy illegal.
To correct the problem and bring admissions in line with the Constitution's equal protection clause, the court said VMI must admit women, go private or set up a parallel program that would give women the same educational results they would find had they attended VMI. The court also found that providing single-sex education is a legitimate public function - a note sounded Wednesday by Allen, who said the plan "will enhance diversity in Virginia higher education."
Wednesday's statements by Gilmore followed a lengthy technical hearing before Judge Jackson Kiser, in which the Justice Department charged that the scope of the leadership institute has evolved beyond a plan approved in September by the court - and endorsed by a host of government and university officials.
During discovery, the standard pretrial exchange of information, witnesses for the Mary Baldwin proposal referred to the September plan "as nothing more than a design specification," said Justice Department attorney Michael Maurer. "Witnesses tended to downplay the plan as a skeleton, a sketch."
He called the Mary Baldwin plan "a moving target" - a constantly changing program that has strayed from the Sept. 27 plan. The government asked Kiser to exclude some witnesses and evidence that it felt it had not been able to properly question during the discovery process.
Kiser overruled the motion.
"The plan of September 27 is the plan," said Mary Baldwin spokeswoman Crista Cabe. "We're working within that - most of what we've done is flesh that out."
The plan includes participation in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, a group-living arrangement for the leadership students, a leadership curriculum and a tough physical education component.
A faculty committee at Mary Baldwin will vote Friday on a status report for the program, which has been crafted by a faculty-staff committee since October. The status report is not yet available to the public.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.