Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407250058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
The judge did give the school another year to decide how to accommodate other women, however.
``I never doubted that one day I would win,'' said Faulkner, who had sued the state-supported school for sex discrimination. ``I was told I would never enter the Citadel's gates. Now I've entered them, and I'm very happy.''
U.S. District Judge Weston Houck declared that The Citadel's refusal to admit Faulkner because of her gender violates her rights under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
But he said the school could have until fall 1995 to come up with a plan to provide a similar education if other women apply.
The Citadel has said it would develop some sort of separate but parallel women's training program similar to one proposed by Virginia Military Institute at Mary Baldwin College, a women's school.
The judge did not indicate what kind of women's program would be acceptable.
Faulkner, 19, applied to The Citadel last year. The college accepted her, then rejected her after learning she is a woman. Faulkner sued.
She has attended classes since January under an order from Houck. Faulkner was not allowed to wear a uniform, march with the cadets or live on campus.
The Citadel had argued during a 10-day trial in May that staying all-male was not discrimination but part of a state policy of offering a variety of choices.
But the school ``failed to articulate an important policy that substantially supports offering the unique benefits of a Citadel-type education to men and not to women,'' the judge wrote.
by CNB