NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) -- Christopher Newport University has added sexual orientation to the list of protected groups on campus.

The school's board of visitors voted on Friday to offer gay and lesbian students, staff and faculty the same protections from discrimination that other groups at the school receive. Some students at the Newport News school have been pushing for the protection for three years.

The decision contrasts with legal advice from the state attorney general, who says that college boards lack the authority to expand discrimination protections.

The board asked Attorney General Bob McDonnell for legal advice. In a letter sent February 13th, McDonnell said Christopher Newport's Board of Visitors did not have the authority to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy.

Board member Jane Susan Frank says she thinks the board saw it as ... quote ... "an issue they needed to support, to support the students." She said ... "We could find no reason not to pass it."

At least 14 public and private colleges in the state include gays and lesbians in their anti-discrimination policies.

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