THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, July 1, 1996                  TAG: 9607010069
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   45 lines

VMI ALUMNI OFFER TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO BUY SCHOOL

Reacting to a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that Virginia Military Institute must admit women, the alumni offered this weekend to mount a $100 million campaign to buy the college from the state.

The court's 7-1 ruling in a landmark sex-discrimination opinion left open the possibility of VMI remaining all male if it became a private institution, leading its alumni board to explore that choice. But the alumni board said it would do so only if the institute's governing board approved the move.

Privatization would also need approval by the Virginia General Assembly. Several legislators said such a stand, although legally possible, would be politically difficult because it could be seen as trying to circumvent the Supreme Court.

While the institute's lawyers said a drive to privatize would have little chance of success, alumni leaders called it a matter of principle.

``You always fight for what you think is right until you've been badly whipped, like General Lee was the day before Appomattox,'' said Edwin Cox III, the president of the VMI Alumni Association. ``If you took an overly cautious approach, we'd still be British.''

After meeting with the alumni board, which held sessions here Saturday and Sunday, the institute's superintendent, Maj. Gen. Josiah Bunting III, said, ``There seems to be great determination among the alumni at least to explore making an effort to take the school private, but with a clear sense of the difficulties such an effort would entail.

``When the whole thing is over, I suppose there's a good chance we'll have to go ahead and admit women.''

Bunting said other obstacles could make privatization difficult, including the chance that the Department of Defense would suspend the school's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. He also cited ``the possibility of a lawsuit by the Justice Department to enjoin us from going private.''

The Citadel, the nation's only other all-male military school that is state-supported, has announced that women are welcome to join the class that begins marching in Charleston, S.C., in August.

The VMI Board of Visitors is appointed by Virginia Gov. George F. Allen, a Republican. It is scheduled to meet on July 12 and 13 on the campus, which is in Lexington.

KEYWORDS: VMI by CNB