
DATE: Sunday, May 18, 1997                  TAG: 9705180043

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
                                            LENGTH:   65 lines

ALLEN, WARNER ADDRESS VA. COLLEGE GRADUATES

Gov. George Allen's commencement address Saturday at Virginia Commonwealth University got a cool reception from about 30 students who turned their backs to him as he spoke.

But Allen ignored the students protesting his higher education policies and told graduates that the most important thing in life is helping others.

``At the end of the day, there must be something more to life than the pursuit of individual wealth,'' he said. ``As members of a free and prosperous society, it is not our option but our obligation to be members of a community.''

The governor also boasted about helping end the steep tuition increases of the early 1990s. He promised that tuitions would remain frozen past 2000.

``We have reversed the harmful policies of the past,'' he said.

VCU and Medical College of Virginia graduates received 2,776 bachelor's, 1,282 master's and 129 doctoral degrees. The university also handed out 170 medical degrees and 78 dentistry degrees.

Elsewhere, Saturday marked the graduation of the last class to attend an all-male Virginia Military Institute, which conferred 172 degrees.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that VMI's all-male admissions policy was unconstitutional.

Thirty women along with more than 380 men have paid deposits to reserve spots in this September's freshman class.

VMI's defeat in its long battle to stay all-male was only peripherally mentioned during commencement ceremonies.

``The Supreme Court has made its decision, the smoke has cleared, and our course for the future has been charted,'' said class valedictorian Michael W. Medlin.

Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command and a graduate of VMI's class of 1962, gave the commencement address.

``I know that my deep roots at VMI and my bond with my classmates have sustained me over and over again over the years,'' he said.

He told graduates to expect dramatic change during their lives. ``And like me, you will draw on your ties to this school and your classmates for sustenance in the days ahead.''

At Mary Washington College, U.S. Sen. John Warner told graduates that today's graduates will have to work longer and harder than their parents ``in order to achieve the same quality of life and economic freedom that your parents have enjoyed.''

College President William M. Anderson Jr. presided over the ceremony, one of his first official functions since suffering a brain aneurism last September. A record 742 bachelor's degrees were handed out.

In Fairfax, George Mason University students were addressed by their new president, Alan Merton.

Merton told graduates that their degrees were only one milestone in a life that will have to be devoted to education.

``In our knowledge-based society where life-long learning is a necessity .

The university awarded 2,739 bachelor's, 1,860 master's, 180 law and 124 doctoral degrees. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. George Allen ignored about 30 Virginia Commonwealth University

students protesting his higher education policies. Also Saturday,

U.S. Sen. John Warner addressed graduates at Mary Washington

College.