Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993 TAG: 9302180064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SHANNON'S FEMALE; CITADEL WITHDRAWS CORPS ACCEPTANCE
The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, unknowingly accepted a woman into its all-male Corps of Cadets last month, then uninvited her after discovering its mistake.Shannon Richey Faulkner, 18, became the first woman to slip past the rigorous gender rule that's kept the state-supported college in Charleston, S.C., a men-only institution for 150 years.
"They've made it clear that had she been a male, she'd have been welcomed with open arms," Suzanne Coe, newly hired attorney for the Easley, S.C., teen-ager, said Tuesday.
"This will be the only pure attack [of discrimination] on The Citadel that's ever been presented."
The Citadel is one of only two all-male, state-supported schools in the country. The other, Virginia Military Institute, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of its all-male admissions policy.
VMI is appealing a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that did not overturn the policy, but said the school might have to admit women if the state did not offer them an equal educational opportunity.
Angry Citadel officials say they're the victims.
"We received a transcript that had been altered with the purposeful intent to deceive the college," Maj. Rick Mill, a spokesman for The Citadel, said Tuesday. "It's apparent that several locations had been removed of any indication of gender, an obvious requirement for admission."
Faulkner asked Wren High School officials to delete mention of gender from her transcript to see if she could get in, said Coe.
"Shannon asked that discriminating factors be deleted from her transcript - white or black, male or female. She wanted them to grade her on her achievements, not on anything else."
Faulkner - A-student, drum major and athlete - wants to go to college in her home state.
The Citadel wrote to her on Jan. 22:
"Dear Mr. Faulkner: It is my pleasure to inform you that the Fourth Class Admissions Advisory Committee of The Citadel has given you provisional acceptance for admission."
It went on to say Faulkner must complete her high school course work, provide a final transcript, pass medical tests and consent to drug testing. "We are excited that you will be joining the Corps of Cadets, and we wish you every success as you continue your education at The Citadel."
Nineteen days later, The Citadel wrote again: "Yesterday we received information from your high school that you are not eligible for admission to the undergraduate day program. . . . The Citadel day program is a single-gender college program for males."