THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9606290259
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON BLAKE, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: 65 lines
Virginia Military Institute Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said Friday that in his ``heart of hearts'' he thinks the college ultimately will admit women.
Female cadets could come in fall 1997 - after ``we work through everything,'' he said.
VMI advocates, including an alumni committee, are still weighing whether to take the school private after the Supreme Court ruled 7-1 this week that the publicly funded institution cannot remain all-male.
The college will know whether it will go private or accept women by fall, Bunting said. VMI's Board of Visitors is expected to take up the issue when it meets July 12-13.
``I see it all very plainly and clearly,'' he said. ``I'm very conscious of what we have to do when the dust settles: To admit women or to raise ten zillion dollars and keep it all male.''
In addition to the legal issue of whether VMI could go private are substantial practical hurdles. VMI would have to increase its $180 million endowment by some $100 million to generate the $10 million in annual operating funds needed to replace state funding, Bunting said.
Also, the General Assembly and the governor would have to approve the plan.
Two other factors may make major donors hesitate before giving VMI the millions it needs to go private.
The Defense Department still awaits Secretary William Perry's response to an April 30 committee recommendation that the department operate ROTC programs ``only at institutions of higher learning . . . that do not discriminate in student admissions on the basis of gender.''
VMI is an important source of the 7,000 ROTC-trained officers commissioned in the armed forces each year. In 1994, 94 VMI graduates were commissioned, the fourth-highest number among ROTC programs.
It also remains to be seen whether the Justice Department, which filed the sex-discrimination suit against VMI in 1990, would sue again if it viewed an attempt to go private as an attempt to evade the Constitution.
``I think the resources are out there to make possible an attempt to go private, but I am not certain whether the people who have those resources, particularly the large amounts of up-front money, would in this particular climate be persuaded they should jump in,'' Bunting said.
``I don't want to say they're not devoted friends,'' Bunting said. But the federal agencies could present ``the kinds of obstacles that tend to make people reluctant to devote large amounts of cash to causes.''
Influential VMI alumni will meet in Richmond over the weekend in a closed gathering of the VMI Alumni Association board to debate the ruling. Whether they make a recommendation to the governing Board of Visitors remains to be seen, said association president Edwin Cox III.
After the VMI governing board meets next month, a campus group likely will be formed to look into how to admit women, Bunting said.
``Because of the timing of this event,'' said Rector William Berry, ``we think we have time to investigate our options and come up with a reasonable plan.''
Attorneys, state officials and others this week all said the school probably can wait another year to admit women, since the school year starts in August.
Bunting said the VMI admissions office is telling women who call to inquire that ``we will comply on Monday immediately after the board meeting July 13.'' One woman called the admissions office this week to ask about attending VMI, which greets a class of 420 male freshmen, or ``rats,'' this fall. MEMO: Virginian-Pilot staff writer Dale Eisman contributed to this
report. by CNB