THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140076
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: 71 lines
Virginia Military Institute decided Saturday not to open its doors to women this fall and to give its alumni two more months to explore the expensive option of becoming a private college.
After a two-day private meeting, the VMI board of visitors also voted to develop a plan for admitting women should the transition from a public college prove impractical.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 26 that the exclusion of women at a state college is unconstitutional.
``We must come into compliance with the decision of the court, but we must do so without abandoning the standards that have made VMI great,'' board president William Berry said. ``The importance of these twin goals is self-evident. The best route to achieve them is not.''
The Citadel in Charleston, the nation's only other state-supported all-male military college, decided to surrender and begin admitting women this fall.
But VMI is an older, richer institution, with the largest per-student endowment of any public college in the United States. Even though VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting said he personally believes coeducation is inevitable, the 157-year-old male-only tradition is dying hard.
Berry said there was a range of opinions among board members on which option is preferable, but he said it is too early to tell which way the board is leaning. ``We took no sympathy votes,'' he said.
Fourteen of the 17 board members are VMI graduates and one of the two female members, Anita Blair, is a staunch advocate of privatization. In addition, the private alumni board has promised to begin a fund-raising campaign to take the school private if the board of visitors endorsed the effort.
The Women's Legal Defense Fund and other women's groups have criticized VMI for what they consider an attempt to skirt the Supreme Court ruling.
Putting off the decision means that VMI cannot possibly admit women this fall because freshmen classes are set by August, Bunting said. If the board favors coeducation, ``I would think 1998 would be a preferable date for admitting women,'' he said.
The VMI board will meet again behind closed doors July 30 to work on a coeducation plan. The members will hear a report on privatization Sept. 21 and then vote on which option to take.
``The issue of coeducation of VMI is not a simple one, and its implementation will require careful planning in order to serve the best interests of Virginia's young men and women,'' Berry said in a board statement. ``The future of VMI and its fundamental values are at stake.''
VMI would have to raise a minimum endowment of $100 million to generate the $10 million annual operating funds needed to replace state funding, Bunting said. The alumni also might have to buy the campus, valued at $137 million, from the state.
A recommendation to become a private college would have to be approved by the Virginia General Assembly, Gov. George F. Allen and U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser, who is in charge of making sure the Supreme Court ruling is followed.
Bunting said there could be legal challenges to privatization as well.
Berry initially recommended committees of the board be formed to study coeducation and privatization. But the members decided that the private alumni agencies would have to make the recommendation to go private while all of them studied coeducation.
``I think a lot of us wanted input,'' board member Thomas Hudson said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
William Berry, president of VMI's board of visitors, answers
questions Saturday about the school's plans to deal with the Supreme
Court ruling that a public school like VMI cannot exclude women.
KEYWORDS: MILITARY ACADEMIES U.S. SUPREME COURT
DECISION by CNB