Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405220023
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Across the aisle, retired Gen. Claudius Watts, the college president, sits in a blue Air Force uniform, with school and state attorneys at a table in front, like troops before their commander.
The battle for The Citadel has been joined.
After a week of legal maneuvering, the introduction of dozens of documents and testimony from 15 witnesses, control of the field is still in doubt.
"I think things are going well," said Faulkner, who applied to the college last year after asking a high school counselor to delete references to her sex on her transcript. "I didn't really know what to expect but there have been no big surprises."
The Citadel accepted, then rejected her application after discovering she was a woman. She sued, claiming the all-male admissions policy to the corps of cadets is unconstitutional discrimination.
The college's defense is that its admission rules are part of a constitutional statewide policy to provide a wide range of choices for South Carolina students in higher education. Diversity, not discrimination.
The Citadel got to fire the first shots - the defense going first because there is no dispute over the fact the corps of cadets does not admit women.
The galleries in the courtroom, with its heavy velvet drapes and maroon carpets, were filled to overflowing the first few days. Crowds and the media horde thinned for the esoteric discussions of higher education policy and how to measure demand for education.
U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck told attorneys the first day he didn't want to retry the issue of single-gender education already aired in a case against Virginia Military Institute.
In VMI, a federal judge approved a plan to leave the school all-male. But Virginia will establish a leadership program for women at Mary Baldwin College, an all-women's school. The Justice Department is appealing the ruling.
What Houck wants to know is why the South Carolina case is different and, if he finds the all-male admissions policy unconstitutional, what the state plans to do about it.
A state policy of diversity makes it different, state attorneys say. But they suffered some setbacks in trying to show the judge there really was such a policy.
Houck is still reviewing whether he will admit as evidence a legislative resolution passed last year endorsing a policy of diversity. Faulkner's attorneys complained it was hearsay and something cooked up just to respond to the lawsuit.
"It's the heart of the state's defense in this case," state attorney Bobby Hood complained to the judge.
The state presented two former governors - John West and James Edwards - who testified the state policy was diversity when they served in the 1970s. The problem was, it was an unwritten policy.
After four days of testimony, the state introduced a Master Plan for Higher Education compiled 15 years ago. It was the first written evidence of such a policy predating the lawsuit.
The state called the presidents of the state's two private women's colleges, Converse and Columbia. Both said they have about 75 empty rooms in their dorms but both were cool to the idea of a women's military program like that envisioned at Mary Baldwin.
On Monday, South Carolina presents its final witness, a higher education expert from Arizona State University who will elaborate on state alternatives. The Citadel has ruled out a coeducational corps of cadets as an alternative.
Faulkner called her first witnesses Friday, including an expert who testified women would be attracted to The Citadel because of its uniqueness, academic offerings and location.
A cadet who graduated three years ago said Citadel cadets were disciplined by other cadets using racial slurs and slurs against women. In testimony disputed by the state, he was called as a witness to raise the question of whether a state diversity policy that permits such an environment is worth keeping.
by CNB