ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609130089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Less than two weeks before Virginia Military Institute's much-awaited decision to either admit women or attempt to go private, the U.S. Justice Department has initiated a new legal skirmish.
Saying that VMI is refusing to send applications to female prospects but continues to do so for men, the department Tuesday asked the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond to return the case to federal court in Roanoke for an injunction to stop VMI "from continuing its exclusionary practices."
The move has angered VMI and state officials, including Attorney General Jim Gilmore, who compared the filing to the movie ``Dumb and Dumber.''
``With only six applications [from men] having been received so far, the Justice Department hasn't explained - and can't - how waiting an extra eight days would harm anyone,'' Gilmore said.
So far, 54 women have asked about attending VMI since June 26, when the Supreme Court ruled that the state-supported school must admit women. Those women received letters explaining that VMI will make its decision about coeducation Sept. 21. VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said the school will be ready to mail applications after that date if the Board of Visitors opts to admit women.
The school year has just begun, and it's still early in the college application process. At VMI, early-admission decisions are not made until November, and most won't be made until early next year, Assistant Attorney General Bill Hurd said in a Sept. 9 letter to the Justice Department.
Next Wednesday, VMI's board begins the final series of meetings expected to culminate with a decision Sept. 21 either to admit women or attempt to take the 157-year-old men's military college private.
Hurd said the Justice Department "is well aware of the efforts being undertaken by the board to develop a plan [for] coeducation to be presented to the board for consideration on the 21st." College administrators have spent the summer studying how to take VMI coed, while the private alumni associations have looked into the multimillion-dollar task of taking VMI private.
However, the Justice Department said that even after a decision capping six years of litigation, "VMI's admissions office continues doing business as usual -by not accepting applications from women," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick said.
The Justice Department said it went to court after informal efforts to resolve the issue with the school were unsuccessful.
"Even though VMI now accepts applications from men for next year's freshman class, it will not even mail applications out to women requesting them. That's wrong," Patrick said.
He added that the motion filed Tuesday is "an appropriate way of balancing the present needs of female applicants with VMI's stated intention of making a decision on the future course of the school."
According to Hurd, the Justice Department on Aug. 30 "made a demand" via letter. "I believe we had some telephone conversations earlier that week about application procedure," he said.
Hurd's letter - dated Monday, the day before the Justice Department went to court -pleaded the school's case that decision day is near. Among the reasons to wait for the board's vote: the school's application procedure, which includes a list of alumni who talk with prospective students about attending VMI.
"For the Board to invite women to submit applications to VMI, without first preparing those alumni to assist them in the same manner that they assist men, could be inconsistent with the equality of treatment that the Supreme Court decision requires," Hurd wrote.
VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting is away, but issued a statement calling the court action "reprehensible" and "insulting to the integrity of the VMI Board of Visitors and the administration of the institute."
Three weeks ago, Bunting blasted the Justice Department after it asked the college to stop contacting other federal agencies -specifically, the federal service academies - without first contacting the Justice Department, following past practice in the case.
"Whenever an agency of government imposes that kind of a regulation or restriction upon free intercourse of people or institutions of good will, particularly in a republic, it is a bad thing," he said at the time.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
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