ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996                   TAG: 9605310064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-5  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE 

ALL QUIET ALONG THE VMI FRONT

Virginia Military Institute isn't discussing "what ifs" in these days before the Supreme Court decides its fate.

"Once we get the [court's] order, there will be a number of decisions that have to be made," Bill Berry, the rector, or chairman, of the VMI Board of Visitors, said last week.

Until then, Berry said, he's not speculating.

By the end of June, the court is expected to decide whether the publicly funded men's military college must admit women. Based on its ruling, the VMI board will decide what to do at a meeting scheduled for July11.

VMI has prepared no contingency plan, said spokesman Mike Strickler.

Josiah Bunting III, the college superintendent, is letting stand an April 30 statement in which he said he would not speculate on the outcome of the sex-discrimination suit.

And asked what might be in the offing, Edwin Cox, alumni president, said: "That's a very complicated question. It's just too complicated for me to answer."

LENGTH: Short :   29 lines