THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9606290262
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 82 lines
In a quick response to a Supreme Court ruling this week that the Virginia Military Institute must either admit women or not accept public money, The Citadel on Friday rescinded its 154-year ban on admitting women to the corps of cadets.
After a unanimous vote by its governing board, the college announced it would accept women ``effective immediately.'' Women could enter the Charleston, S.C., military college in August.
It is unknown how many will take immediate advantage of the change, but a school spokesman said only four women had applied for the 1996-1997 academic year, compared with 1,291 men.
Henry Weisburg, an attorney who helped lead the court battle against the college, urged The Citadel to launch a ``very active recruitment'' of women for the 1996-97 school year.
A spokesman for VMI, the only other state-supported, all-male military college, said its Board of Visitors was scheduled to discuss the Supreme Court decision at its next meeting on July 12, when the board would consider options that include privatizing, or admitting women and keeping the $10.3 million that VMI receives annually from Virginia.
The school had no comment on The Citadel's announcement.
The decision by The Citadel board follows a protracted legal battle to break the men-only admissions policy. The last fight pitted the college against Shannon Faulkner, a woman from Powdersville, S.C., who sued The Citadel in 1993, seeking to become a first-year ``knob.''
Last August she prevailed in her case and, under a federal court order, became the first woman to march alongside men at The Citadel. But less than a week after she began her orientation, she dropped out after suffering from stress and heat sickness.
On Friday one of the lawyers who represented Faulkner hailed The Citadel's decision, calling it ``a stunning victory for women in South Carolina and the nation.''
The lawyer, Val Vojdik, who now teaches at New York University Law School, declared: ``The Citadel did the right thing in a way that welcomes women. I'm confident that the admission of women will really improve the school and continue its tradition of excellence, and I'm very pleased the school acted as quickly as it did. That's a good sign there will be a successful integration of women at the school.''
Although Faulker dropped out, a lawsuit against The Citadel continued in a federal district court, with Nancy Mellette, a 17-year-old student from Irmo, S.C., and a sister of a 1996 Citadel graduate, replacing Faulkner as the plaintiff.
Col. Terry Leedom, a spokesman for the school, said that before the Supreme Court's ruling in the Virginia case, lawyers for The Citadel were prepared to continue fighting Mellette's case, even after she had notified the college that she might enter the U.S. Military Academy Prep School in Fort Monmouth, N.J., this fall.
But, he said, The Citadel's case was made virtually moot by the Supreme Court's 7-1 ruling Wednesday that Virginia cannot justify keeping women out of a state-supported institution.
``The court spoke as loudly and clearly as it possibly could,'' Leedom said. ``That's now the law of the land, and we didn't want to go through with more delays that would not have fit into the spirit of the ruling. So we're doing it.''
As strenuously as lawyers for The Citadel fought against changes in its admissions policy, and as unaccepting as some students were of Faulkner, Leedom said the college was prepared to accommodate any women who meet its academic and physical requirements.
Earlier this week, Lt. Gen. Claudius Watts III, a retired Air Force officer who is president of The Citadel, acknowledged that the college had recently completed a five-year strategic plan that does not mention coeducation, and now must be overhauled.
``We believed we would succeed,'' Watts said, referring to the lawsuit involving Mellette.
Nonetheless, Leedom said that all necessary accommodations would be made, and that male students would be ``thoroughly instructed'' on proper behavior, including what constitutes sexual harassment.
``They might not like her,'' Leedom said, referring to the male cadets' attitude toward the next woman to enter The Citadel. ``But she's not going to know it. They will have respect for the individual. That is drilled into cadets from Day One. It will work here, and it will work well.'' MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The New York Times and
Knight-Ridder News Service. by CNB