Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504170062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Val Vojdik, an attorney for Shannon Faulkner, who is suing to become the first woman in the military school's all-male corps of cadets, calls the idea ``bribing women to stay out of The Citadel.''
And the plan likely will require another trial before U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck, who last year ordered Faulkner into the corps.
On Thursday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state must come up with an acceptable plan for single-sex women's leadership training or admit Faulkner in August.
Under the state proposal, students accepted by Columbia College in Columbia or Converse College in Spartanburg would be eligible for a leadership program subsidized by the state.
Students would have to take certain courses, enroll in the ROTC and take military training during the summer. The Citadel has pledged up to $5 million for the plan.
Neither private school has been formally contacted, but Cooke said their approval is not required.
``The program is transparent from the perspective of the women's colleges,'' he said. ``They would not have to have any involvement whatsoever.''
Citadel Board Chairman Jimmy Jones likened it to a student getting a state scholarship to attend a private school. The private school sets admission requirements although the student still gets state money.
The cost of the program should be known in about two weeks when the Senate takes up next year's budget, said Robb McBurney, a spokesman for state Attorney General Charlie Condon.
``Whether we've got the support for the state to spend $5 million, if that's what's needed, I don't know,'' said state Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, a Citadel graduate and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The same federal appeals court has allowed Virginia Military Institute to remain all male while Virginia creates a women's leadership program at private Mary Baldwin College. But Vojdik said the South Carolina plan isn't the same.
``It doesn't have its own curriculum, it doesn't have its own teachers, it doesn't have a library or a book or a name,'' she said. ``Basically, it says we'll let you go for a week in the summer and march around.''
There are other problems as well, she said.
The private schools could close or might, in the future, admit men, destroying the single-sex program, she said. There could also be legal problems if the private schools allow some students to get state help for taking courses required by the state, she said.
State Rep. Bob Sheheen, D-Camden, who two years ago wrote a bill putting the state in support of single-sex education at The Citadel, called it ``a little far-fetched'' to think the program could be launched without the cooperation of the women's schools.
Columbia College President Peter Mitchell said his college would have to approve any contractual agreement that might let the women's leadership program recruit or otherwise use campus facilities.
He said the college has not been consulted about the leadership plan and won't consider it until after any plan has been approved by Houck.
Students still would be required to meet all Columbia College course requirements and ``I would certainly want to insure any program would never jeopardize our independent status or church affiliation,'' he said.
Unlike in the past, time is now on Faulkner's side - she gets in the corps in August unless a plan is developed.
Vojdik said attorneys could simply try to delay, preventing the approval of any plan, but ``basically we want to get a time frame established for a quick resolution.''
by CNB