ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, July 1, 1996                   TAG: 9607010106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER 

VMI ALUMNI BOARD KEEPING MUM THEY REACHED A CONSENSUS ON THE SCHOOL'S FUTURE OVER THE WEEKEND

The influential board of directors for Virginia Military Institute's Alumni Association isn't saying publicly what it thinks the school should do in the wake of last week's Supreme Court decision.

But "we made up our minds what we think ought to happen," said outgoing association president Edwin "Pete" Cox.

The consensus, which came during a closed weekend meeting in Richmond of the 25-member board, will be shared with the school's governing Board of Visitors when it meets July 12-13 in Lexington. The board of visitors is expected then to consider whether to take the school private or admit women.

The alumni meeting came three days after a 7-1 court decreed that VMI must admit women or give up public funds. Attorneys have been poring over the decision, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to try to interpret what the state school legally can do.

Incoming alumni association president Steve Fogelman said "more meetings are scheduled in the future," and that the board's weekend work remains "a work in progress."

Significant practical hurdles must be cleared if the school is to go private, not the least of which is raising millions to make up the $10 million in annual operating funds VMI receives from the state.

Cox did say Sunday he believes it's possible that some of VMI's fiercely loyal alumni may withhold financial support if women are admitted to the school.

"I think it's a possibility," he said. "Conversely, there may be those who support it, were it to go coed, who wouldn't otherwise."

VMI's $180 million endowment is the largest per-student endowment of any public college or university in the country.

VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said Friday that, in the end, he expects VMI will admit women. He pointed to Ginsburg's sternly worded decision.

"In effect, she is telling us, when women come here, we should retain the full force and full vigor of the adversative system. That's what they want," Bunting said.

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