ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607010057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S. C.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: above
IN A UNANIMOUS DECISION, the South Carolina military school said it will "enthusiastically" admit women.
The Citadel fell in line behind the Supreme Court on Friday, deciding to end its 153-year-old men-only policy and admit women immediately and ``enthusiastically.''
The unanimous vote by the school's governing board came two days after the high court declared unconstitutional the all-male admissions policy at Virginia Military Institute.
The Citadel's decision leaves VMI as the only all-male state-supported military school in the nation.
``Effective immediately, The Citadel will enthusiastically accept qualified female applicants into the corps of cadets,'' said Jimmy Jones, board president.
Women could begin marching in August.
``It's terrific,'' said Val Vojdik, the lead attorney in the 3 1/2-year fight to get the school to accept women cadets. ``It's absolutely the right thing - a stunning victory for the women and the state of South Carolina. I think The Citadel will emerge a new and better place.''
The decision ends a battle that began in 1993 when Shannon Faulkner was admitted to The Citadel after she had all references to her sex deleted from her transcript. The school withdrew the admissions offer after realizing she is a woman.
Faulkner sued and a federal judge eventually ordered her accepted as a cadet last August. But she dropped out after less than a week, citing the stress, hostility and isolation.
In an attempt to preserve its all-male status, The Citadel, like VMI, created a separate ``women's leadership program,'' this one at all-female Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C.
But the Supreme Court, in its decision Wednesday, declared VMI's women's program unequal to VMI itself, and therefore unacceptable. That ruling, in turn, cast doubt on the constitutionality of The Citadel's program for women.
The Citadel has applications on file from four women, but two elected to go to school elsewhere next year, until the court battles were sorted out. Jones said the school must still work out details such as housing and how women cadets will be integrated into the corps.
This week, Faulkner said she had no desire to return to the school, and the woman who took over the lawsuit from her, Nancy Mellette, has elected to attend the U.S. Military Academy Prep School in New Jersey. Calls to Faulkner's home were not immediately returned Friday.
Another woman who wants to march at The Citadel, 17-year-old Kim Messer of Clover, said Friday she was sticking by her decision to attend a junior college in New Mexico. She plans to transfer to The Citadel in 1998.
``I'd like to wait and give it a few years, to let everybody get adjusted to the idea,'' Messer told WIS-TV in Columbia.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB