ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996              TAG: 9610220083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER

U.S. ASKS COURT FOR VMI PLAN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TOLD TO SEE INTERNET

The U.S. Justice Department is asking a federal judge to order Virginia Military Institute to explain how it will integrate women into the corps of cadets.

Saying the school never has released any plans for coeducation - despite resolving to do so in July - the department wants a Nov. 13 hearing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke to discuss the matter.

Informal meetings to talk about coeducation have ``worked effectively in the Citadel litigation,'' the department says in papers filed in the Roanoke court Thursday. At a similar meeting held with Virginia officials, ``The effort to reach an agreement failed and at this point the defendants still have made no commitment to produce a plan by a date certain, or indeed to produce one at all.''

The Citadel, which admitted its first woman last year and more this fall, had been the only other male-only state university.

Bill Hurd, the deputy state attorney general who has handled the VMI case for the state, could not be reached late Monday for comment. Since the VMI Board of Visitors voted last month to admit women, the school has maintained that it will change as little as possible.

``In accordance with its rulings in the long line of public school desegregation cases, the Supreme Court in [its] VMI [decision] emphasized that the remedial plan `must closely fit the constitutional violation; it must be shaped to place persons unconstitutionally denied an opportunity or advantage in the position they would have occupied in the absence of [discrimination],''' the Justice Department wrote.

The Citadel case showed that ``the state that has been found to have violated the Constitution must do more than merely open its schoolhouse doors to and make minimal accommodations for those who have previously been discriminatorily excluded,'' the department wrote.

The Justice Department is asking the district court to decide if any facets traced through VMI's 157-year males-only history impede women from: deciding to apply or enroll at VMI; being admitted to VMI; or from obtaining equal educational opportunities at VMI. Broad areas to be considered include the school's administration, recruitment, the honor code and access to the alumni network.

In an Oct. 4 letter to a Justice Department attorney, filed with the federal government's brief, state Assistant Attorney General Maureen Riley Matsen wrote: ``Your request that we respond with a comprehensive and detailed plan addressing the issues identified by your outline by the end of the month is predicated upon the view that racial desegregation and gender cases are analogous. Since we do not accept this analogy, it is our position that meeting your request would be inappropriate.''

She also suggested that Justice Department officials check the VMI Web site on the Internet for ``materials that we indicated are in the public domain.''

In its papers, the Justice Department also insisted that state funding to implement coeducation needs to be available now - ``not next year - so that all necessary steps will be completed by the start of the 1997 school year.'' VMI has said it expects to ask the General Assembly for $5.7million to convert to coeducation. Construction of women's bathrooms has begun in the barracks.

Meantime, VMI expects to mail 40,000 letters to potential women recruits in the next two weeks, admissions director Vern Beitzel said late last week.

The school's first open house for prospective students, held Friday, included two women, and the first application from a female arrived at the military college last week. VMI also has hired a woman recruiter.

``I think we're moving as fast as we possibly can here,'' VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said.

Committees studying the integration of women have been meeting weekly since July, and information about the school's progress toward coeducation is available on the Internet, he said.

``It's got to be a work in progress. We have to be able to decide the best way to do this at VMI and consult others. It's not something you do on a whim,'' Strickler said.

LENGTH: Medium:   75 lines