Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508070109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRUCE SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
It's not much of a room. Metal bunk bed. Hardwood floors. White sink.
But by the end of this week, if the courts don't intervene, room 3344 in the Law Barracks at The Citadel will be home to the first female cadet in the state military college's 152-year history.
Shannon Faulkner will be a member of India company and live by herself in the third-floor room, which overlooks the gray and red checkerboard courtyard in the middle of the white-walled barracks.
A bathroom with a toilet and single shower has been created by partitioning part of a cadet latrine.
Two video cameras and a microphone will monitor the open gallery in front of her room and a sign will warn that the area is monitored. Unlike other cadet rooms, hers will have a window blind and door latch.
``The courts are being cautious, and while I can understand it, it's not necessary,'' says Matthew Pansari, the highest-ranking cadet officer in a strict military system run largely by the cadets themselves.
``You can take it [camera] down and it wouldn't change her treatment at all,'' he said. ``She'll be treated fairly.''
Last year, Faulkner was a week from entering The Citadel's corps, but the school persuaded the courts to block her way, allowing her to attend classes only as a day student.
Last month, U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck ruled Faulkner could enter the corps. Unless Citadel attorneys prevail in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Faulkner will become a cadet Saturday.
The 250 cadets who form what is called the cadre - the group responsible for training other cadets - arrived on campus this weekend.
Pansari, a senior from Columbia, S.C., said student officers realize the campus of 2,000 cadets will be under scrutiny from the media. The measure of success, he says, will be an uneventful year.
``I will not on my watch allow a single person to come in and change what we do,'' Pansari said. ``This is a chance for the whole world to see what a great place this is.''
While a federal judge has ordered Faulkner, as far as possible, be treated like male cadets, the plan for admitting her includes exceptions.
Her head will not be shaved, cadet officers will not be allowed to touch her or any item she is wearing. They also may not, as they might with other cadets, say she is unable to perform up to standards.
Only those cadets in Faulkner's chain of command will be allowed to discipline or give her orders.
She will also, if dressing, be permitted a one-minute delay when cadets knock at her door. Officers can immediately walk into the rooms of male cadets without notice.
Pansari said he expects Faulkner to be treated well, although he hopes the courts will eventually keep women out.
``I think men and women are equal in every sense,'' he said. ``But our purpose here is vastly different - to educate students in an all-male environment. By her presence, you change the purpose of the college.''
by CNB