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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994                   TAG: 9405270108
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE JOINS VMI IN FILING FOR RIGHT TO APPEAL CASE TO HIGH COURT

Exercising "an abundance of caution," the state and Virginia Military Institute have filed papers to assure their right to appeal their original case to the Supreme Court - a case the high court refused to hear last year.

The action came the week after the U.S. Justice Department appealed a federal judge's ruling allowing the proposed Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Mary Baldwin College as an alternative to admitting women to all-male VMI. The Justice Department seeks an airing of the issue by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

VMI's filing leaves open the option of discussing only the merits of retaining its males-only status under a state policy of diversity among colleges and universities. It is the same issue now being tried in South Carolina, where Shannon Faulkner is suing for admission to The Citadel, the nation's only other males-only public military college.

Several of VMI's attorneys are involved in the South Carolina case and were unavailable for comment late Thursday.

But William Poff, a Roanoke attorney who has worked on the VMI side of the case, said the filing is essentially a technicality now, but it lets VMI keep all its options open. If the case reaches the Supreme Court, VMI will be able to argue only the benefits of single-sex education without considering the women's institute alternative.

In a letter accompanying the filing, William Hurd, the state's deputy attorney general, said the defendants have not "altered their commitment to the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership," and that the filing is made "from an abundance of caution."

He also said VMI and the state do not challenge U.S. District Court Judge Jackson Kiser's April decision in favor of the leadership plan

Kiser heard testimony on the plan after the 4th Circuit demanded VMI go private, admit women, or come up with an alternative, parallel plan. The private VMI Foundation is willing to fund the plan for $6.9 million, if it ultimately passes constitutional muster.

by CNB