
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                    TAG: 9406170525 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A9    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940617                                 LENGTH: CHARLESTON, S.C.

JUDGE THROWS OUT MISTRIAL REQUEST SOUGHT BY CITADEL \

{LEAD} An angry federal judge rejected The Citadel's request for a mistrial Thursday in a sex discrimination lawsuit against the all-male state military school.

``The motion is totally frivolous,'' U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck said.

{REST} The judge threatened to ask the school's lawyers to show why he shouldn't cite them for filing a frivolous motion. He could fine the lawyers or the school.

Houck was expected to rule next month in the lawsuit filed by Shannon Faulkner, who had references to her gender removed from her high school transcript when she applied and was accepted by The Citadel. She was rejected when school officials learned she was a woman.

Faulkner, 19, has attended Citadel day classes since January under Houck's order while her case was pending, but she hasn't been allowed to march with the cadets.

The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute are the nation's only all-male, state-supported military colleges. The policy at VMI is also being challenged in court.

During closing arguments, Citadel lawyer Dawes Cooke said keeping the school all-male was not unconstitutional discrimination against women, but part of a broad state policy of diversity and using limited state resources.

``We're not in the same boat as Virginia,'' Cooke said. ``We do have the state here defending its policy. We do have the Legislature stating their support for single-gender education.''

Virginia never justified providing a single-sex program for men at VMI and not for women, Cooke said. A federal judge said VMI may stay all-male if it creates a military-type women's leadership program at private Mary Baldwin College, an all-female school.

The presidents of South Carolina's two private women's colleges, Columbia and Converse, showed little interest in creating a similar program.

During a 10-day trial last month, Houck listened to 27 witnesses, hours of arguments and reviewed dozens of exhibits.

The Citadel's mistrial motion, filed last week, said Houck may have prejudged the case. It cited his order that the school prepare a plan to admit Faulkner as a cadet.

by CNB