Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508140091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Shannon Faulkner took her place in a long gray line Saturday at The Citadel, becoming the first female cadet in 152 years of all-male Southern tradition at the publicly funded military college.
Faulkner entered the campus by a side gate, not seeing protest signs at the main gate, including a banner held by a dozen women that read ``Save the Males.''
``It's a black day for The Citadel,'' said Sallie Baldwin. ``Shannon does not speak for us. She's not welcome here.''
On the opposite corner were about 50 Faulkner supporters, with signs reading ``The Males are Saved'' and ``The Citadel Mentality is Not Now a Reality.''
Faulkner, stern-faced, would not talk with reporters when she arrived on campus shortly after 7:30 a.m. with her parents and lawyers. She was escorted in by federal marshals.
``All I can say is, everything is going well,'' she said as she walked into her band audition later, her flute case and sheet music tucked under her arm.
Faulkner has said she will not be the last woman to wear The Citadel's gray uniform. College President Claudius Watts, however, said that while the school accepts the courts' decision to allow Faulkner into the corps, it will press on with appeals to keep other women from following her.
``The courts have ruled. It's a lawful order. As a military person, I salute and move forward,'' Watts told an assembly of relatives that included Faulkner's parents.
On Friday, two U.S. Supreme Court justices rejected the school's latest bid to stop her.
``I feel disappointed in how the case ended up,'' said junior David Williams, a member of India Company, Faulkner's cadet unit. ``Hopefully, everything will work out. I'd obviously prefer it stayed all-male.''
As knots of cadets watched from across a courtyard, Faulkner was greeted by cadet Alex Pettett, a senior who commands India Company. Other cadets helped move her luggage upstairs.
``I would say a couple of days ago, it hit me a little harder; but since then our cadre has been training and is prepared for this, and she'll be treated no differently. Today is just another day,'' Pettett said.
``I'd say confidence is extremely high. Morale is very high, too,'' he said.
Other male cadets appeared to ignore Faulkner as they assembled in a courtyard, one indication of the isolation she could face.
Faulkner, a 20-year-old junior, will have a private room, with video cameras monitoring the hallway outside for security.
Faulkner, 20, has taken classes at the 2,000-student school since January 1994 under court order, but she was not allowed to take military training as a member of the Corps of Cadets until The Citadel's last-ditch appeals were turned down twice at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
The college wanted the justices to bar Faulkner until the court could resolve whether public single-gender education is constitutional. The Citadel will continue to pursue that case, school lawyer Dawes Cooke said.
``I plan to be treated like anyone else. And whether that's being forced to walk in the gutter or not be acknowledged by upperclassmen, that's what I expect,'' Faulkner said.
One year ago, U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck declared the school's all-male policy unconstitutional.
In April, a federal appeals court told The Citadel to admit Faulkner as a cadet by this fall if the state did not establish a comparable program for women elsewhere.
The state proposed a $10 million women's leadership program at private Converse College in Spartanburg, but no trial on that plan will be held until November.
Virginia, which has the only other state-supported, all-male military college, is creating a women's leadership program at Mary Baldwin College to keep women out of Virginia Military Institute. The Justice Department is appealing to force VMI to accept women.
Faulkner was accepted by The Citadel in 1993 after references to her gender were deleted from her high school transcript. When the school found out she was a woman, it withdrew its acceptance.
Among Faulkner's supporters Saturday was Pat Tobin, who brought along his three daughters, a 4-year-old and 5-year-old twins.
``I think it's a travesty that my tax dollars go to support it but my daughters can't go there,'' he said.
``I expect to be treated like a knob,'' Faulkner said Friday, referring to the nickname given new cadets because of their close-cropped hair.
The school decided she will not have to shave her head, saying the idea behind the haircut is to maintain uniformity, and she already is different from the other cadets.
by CNB