THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070640
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
The Citadel, battling to keep women out of its all-male corps of cadets, has pledged to spend as much as $5 million to subsidize women's military training at other colleges.
``This will allow a large number of women in South Carolina to receive the unique kind of education The Citadel provides,'' Claudius Watts, president of the state military school, said Wednesday.
But Val Vojdik, a lawyer for Shannon Faulkner who has sued to join The Citadel's corps, called the court-ordered plan offensive.
``This is treating women as second-class citizens,'' she said. ``This makes a mockery of the desires of women who want to pursue a military education.''
The Citadel proposes creating a South Carolina Women's Leadership Institute. Students could attend Converse College in Spartanburg or Columbia College for a single-sex education and take Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at the University of South Carolina and Wofford College.
They would train at the Palmetto Military Academy in Columbia, which also trains National Guard officers.
Women who wanted military training could attend North Georgia College and the state would help pay.
The Citadel and the state were ordered to file the plan by U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck. He and the General Assembly must approve it.
KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY by CNB