ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S. C.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Citadel President Claudius Watts announced Friday he will retire as president of the military college at the end of August after the U.S. Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of state-supported single-sex education.
``By that time, we should have come to the end of one demanding and challenging era and be standing at the threshold of another,'' Watts said during a late afternoon news conference as cadets in dress uniforms marched by.
As late as Friday morning, the 59-year-old Watts had not decided his future, although he said ``it would be very difficult'' to stay if women were ordered into the corps.
Watts, a strong advocate of single-sex education, said he told the school's governing board when he was hired in 1989 that he would stay at least six years but not more than 10.
``You have to stay six years minimum if you're going to make an impact - 10 years and you're stale, old and smelly,'' he said.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule this spring on a challenge to the admissions policy at Virginia Military Institute, the nation's only other all-male state military college. That decision would affect The Citadel.
One woman, Shannon Faulkner, already was admitted into the cadet corps under a lower-court order last fall. But she dropped out after less than a week, citing isolation and stress.
Her court case has been taken over by Nancy Mellette of Irmo, who attends a military academy in North Carolina.
Watts made up his mind Friday after talking with Jimmy Jones, chairman of the board of visitors, and other board members. Watts, the college's 17th president, said he would not stay on even if The Citadel prevailed in the courts.
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