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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 1, 1995                   TAG: 9502010073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE BACKS TECH'S CAMPUS-USE LIMITS

In a written opinion filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser upheld Tech's policy that limits the use of university facilities - including the drill field and other open forums - to students or to groups or individuals sponsored by a student organization.

Kiser's ruling was made in the case of James Gilles, a traveling evangelist who sued Tech in 1992 because the university wouldn't allow him to preach on its drill field.

Tech officials told Gilles he could speak in the university's amphitheater, an option the preacher didn't like because it is on the west side of campus away from academic buildings and residence halls.

University officials also denied Gilles permission to speak on the drill field in 1988 and 1992, citing the regulation requiring him to have sponsorship from a student group. The minister refused to try to obtain a sponsorship, court records say.

Gilles filed suit in federal court, saying that the university's policy violated his right to free speech.

Last summer, in a partial settlement of the suit, the university agreed to allow Gilles to speak in front of the university's dining halls or on Henderson Lawn. Gilles - who still has not preached on campus - continued to challenge the constitutionality of Tech's sponsorship policy.

His arguments didn't convince Kiser.

"I find that the university's right to protect its academic mission is, alone, sufficient to outweigh the minimal burden" that the sponsorship requirement places on Gilles, he wrote.