Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508140073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Chief Justice William Rehnquist on Friday rejected an emergency request from the state-run military school to keep her out.
The Citadel made a last-ditch appeal to Justice Antonin Scalia, but he rejected the request without comment late Friday. Scalia could have granted the request or referred the matter to the full court.
``I am going to be in the corps and I will graduate as a member of the corps and other women will follow me,'' Faulkner said.
The 20-year-old junior, flanked by her lawyers and parents, popped the cork on a bottle of champagne in a garden in Charleston and filled their glasses. She had ice water.
Faulkner was to report to campus this morning with about 600 freshmen. U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck has ordered that federal marshals monitor her entry into the corps.
``I am confident I will be able to meet every standard The Citadel has in place on campus,'' she said. ``I'm actually going to try to be the best cadet I can possibly be. And I'm not going to be on campus for anyone else but me.''
Rehnquist, who studied the case from his vacation home in Vermont, gave no written reason for his decision.
``We intend to comply fully with the orders of the courts,'' said Citadel President Claudius E. Watts III.
``The issue concerning single-gender education is a legal controversy about which there are differing views and attitudes. It is not a fight between The Citadel and Shannon Faulkner.''
The Charleston school was ordered by a federal appeals court in April to admit Faulkner as a cadet if the state did not establish a comparable military program for women at some other school.
The state is developing a $10 million women's leadership program at private Converse College, but the plan is still in preliminary stages and has not been approved by the courts.
The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute are the nation's only all-male, state-supported military colleges.
VMI's admissions policy also is being challenged by the U.S. Justice Department; the Supreme Court is expected this fall to say whether it will hear the case. Meantime, Virginia opens what it says is a "substantively comparable" leadership program for women Aug. 22 at private Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, known as the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership.
The private VMI Foundation is endowing the program, and the state legislature has appropriated funds to make up the difference between tuition costs at VMI and Mary Baldwin.
Faulkner was accepted by The Citadel in 1993 after references to her gender were deleted from her high school transcript. The school later withdrew its offer of admission, and she sued, claiming the all-male program is unconstitutional.
She has attended classes at the 2,000-student college since January 1994 under a court order, but she has not been allowed to take military training or wear a uniform.
``At one time or another, traditions end,'' Faulkner said. Her enrollment as a cadet ``is going to make the school even better.
``This is something I wanted,'' she said. ``I wanted a Citadel education. I think I've proven that by continuing this fight.''
She also offered assurances that she'll be able to withstand the tough mental and physical challenges that await her. ``I'm qualified to be a cadet,'' she said. ``I'm going to be a cadet. And I plan to graduate'' in two years.The Citadel had asked Rehnquist, who handles emergency matters from South Carolina for the high court, to delay Faulkner's entrance as a cadet until the full court reviews the case.
``If there is any room at all under the Constitution for public single-sex education, then surely The Citadel's Corps of Cadets qualifies,'' the school's lawyers argued.
Even as Rehnquist handed down his order, both sides argued in a Charleston federal courtroom over how Faulkner's band audition would be handled this morning.
Faulkner failed one audition, but Houck had ordered that she be given another chance with the freshmen who report today.
Staff writer Allison Blake and Knight-Ridder/Tribune contributed information to this story.
by CNB