Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070019
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
The only problem is, they apparently didn't tell at least two of the colleges where they want the program housed.
Under the plan filed in federal court, women who want leadership training in a single-sex environment could attend Converse College in Spartanburg and Columbia College at the same price it costs men to attend The Citadel. Converse Provost Thomas McDaniel and Columbia President Peter Mitchell both said Thursday they knew nothing of the plan until it was ready to go to court.
The proposal comes one week after the same appeals court overseeing The Citadel case heard arguments for and against Virginia's similar solution to keeping women out of VMI.
While the U.S. Justice Department advocates admitting women to VMI, attorneys for VMI answered queries about a proposed women's leadership institute from a trio of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The assistant to The Citadel's president, Lewis Spearman, attended the hearing.
Unlike South Carolina, Virginia plans to house its women's program in one spot.
The Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership, to be open by next fall at Mary Baldwin College, was approved by U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser in May.
Featuring ROTC training, it will be endowed for nearly $5.5 million by the private VMI Foundation. The General Assembly has approved tuition funding for students to close the gap between the cost of private Mary Baldwin and the cost of state-supported VMI.
Under South Carolina's proposal, women would take military training in existing ROTC programs at the University of South Carolina and Wofford College and receive training at Palmetto Military Academy. The academy offers training for the South Carolina National Guard.
For women who want coeducational military training, the state would help offset the cost for them to attend North Georgia College.
U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck ordered The Citadel to come up with a remedy after ruling its male-only admission policy was unconstitutional. In 1992, the 4th Circuit ruled that publicly funded VMI could not ban women. It ordered the school to admit women, go private or come up with a creative remedy.
Houck's ruling came in Shannon Faulkner's suit to join The Citadel's corps. Houck also ordered that she be admitted, although that decision has been put on hold by the Richmond appeals court.
Val Vojdik, an attorney for Faulkner, said the remedy plan was offensive.
``This is not remotely similar to the Corps of Cadets experience offered at The Citadel,'' she said. ``It's an entire failure on the part of South Carolina to provide a military-style education for women.''
The Citadel Board of Visitors has authorized $5 million for the program, although an unspecified additional amount of tuition assistance would be required from the state.
Under the proposal, there would not have to be any changes in the programs at Converse or Columbia. Women in the leadership institute from both campuses would meet during the year as a group and would attend summer training sessions together.
by CNB