ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996                TAG: 9607180038
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO 

1927 STUDY PRIVATE VMI ISN'T A NEW IDEA

THE WORD on VMI:

``The Virginia Military Institute has played a very important role in the civic, political and educational life of Virginia and the entire South ... But the need for the particular type of education which is found at [VMI] has largely passed.

``The excessive number of hours given to military theory and practice impinges greatly upon the time that the student should give to real intellectual or vocational preparation for his work in life.

``So long as there are children in Virginia of elementary age who are growing up in illiteracy because there are not adequate provisions for their education ... Virginia should not continue to appropriate funds for [VMI].''

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg didn't use those words. They came from a 1927 - that's right: 1927 - legislative study of primary-to-postgraduate education in Virginia.

The study, unearthed recently by Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Jeff Schapiro, recommended that the General Assembly terminate scholarship aid to VMI, freeze capital outlays and privatize the school, renting the campus to overseers for $1 a year. If VMI couldn't make it as a private college, the study commission said the General Assembly should turn it into a vocational school.

Needless to say, lawmakers paid no heed to the 1927 study commission. And, in truth, VMI's recent problems might not have been avoided by its transformation into a vocational school. Legislators of that day probably would have thought an all-male admissions policy for plumbers or mechanics was quite appropriate.

But think of the time, expense and trouble that could have been avoided had the General Assembly not dodged efforts by former Sen. Emilie Miller, D-Fairfax, to end VMI's discriminatory admissions tradition.

In 1990, Miller introduced a bill that simply said: ``All public institutions of higher education shall admit qualified students without regard to race, sex, religion, national origin or political affiliation.'' Which sounds much like the word from Justice Ginsburg.

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