THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130639
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
Shannon Faulkner passed through the stone gates of The Citadel and into history Saturday as she became the first female cadet at the 152-year-old military college.
In the wake of death threats, Faulkner was accompanied by four U.S. marshals as well as her parents and lawyers as she pulled up to the publicly funded college about 7:30 a.m.
She 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.'' Stern-faced, she would not talk with reporters.
``It's a black day for The Citadel,'' said Sallie Baldwin, one of the women. ``Shannon does not speak for us. She's not welcome here.''
On the opposite corner were about 50 supporters, with signs reading ``The Males are Saved'' and ``The Citadel Mentality is Not Now a Reality.''
As Faulkner walked into her band audition later, her flute case and sheet music tucked under her arm, she said, ``All I can say is everything is going well.''
Faulkner has said she will not be the last woman to wear The Citadel 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 later told an assembly of relatives that included Faulkner's parents.
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 and she sued.
She 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 - first by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, then by Justice Antonin Scalia. Neither gave a reason for the rejections.
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. WHY? OTHER CADETS ASK
Many current Citadel cadets said Saturday they were baffled by Faulkner's motives. ``Why would you want to come onto campus when nobody wants you?'' asked Brian Kucaba, a second-year student from Spartanburg.
``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 the courtyard of Law Barracks, Faulkner was greeted Saturday by cadet Alex Pettett, a senior who commands India Company. Other cadets helped move her luggage upstairs.
``I would say a couple 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.
Some cadets who have shared classes with Faulkner during the past year say they have enjoyed her company.
``She's a real nice lady when not around this controversy,'' said David Abrams, 23, who graduated in June.
``Not one cadet has protested against her personally,'' Abrams said. ``Some of the media has called us beasts and animals. They come down here expecting to see good `ole' boys from the South who think that women should stay in the kitchen, and African Americans shouldn't be educated.
``But that's not it. We just want single-sex education. We just don't want to open our doors to women.'' NOT EQUAL TREATMENT
Many at the Citadel also question whether Faulkner, who has a stocky build, is up to the challenge. A favorite bumper sticker around town implores: ``Save the Males. Shave the Whale.'' But Faulkner expresses little self-doubt.
``I feel ready in every single possible way to become a knob,'' said Faulkner, referring to the nickname given new cadets because of their close-cropped hair. ``I expect to be treated like anybody else, whether that means having to walk in the gutter or not being able to talk to upperclassmen.''
The reality, of course, is that Faulkner will not be treated like anybody else. Either because of court orders or its own voluntary decisions, the Citadel already has made any number of special provisions for her, some of them for its own legal protection.
For starters, Col. Joseph W. Trez, the commandant of cadets, said he had ordered male cadets not to deride Faulkner by calling her a knob or ``dumb head,'' fearing that such language might incite litigation. ``Plebe,'' he said, would be an acceptable form of degradation.
In addition, the Citadel has provided sexual harassment and sensitivity training to many cadets and has restricted the number of upperclassmen who can discipline Faulkner.
And upperclass cadets will not be allowed to rifle through Faulkner's dresser drawers, as they do with male freshmen in search of improperly folded underwear, Trez said.
The school says it has spent $25,000 - a pittance compared with the untold millions the state will spend on legal fees and the $3.4 million it spent to establish a women's program at Converse - to construct a private bathroom for Faulkner on the third floor of Law Barracks and to mount video surveillance equipment outside her room.
``We're not worried about a cadet harming her,'' Leedom said. ``But it's extra protection for us in case some harm does come to her.'' LEGAL ORDEAL CONTINUES
Faulkner's legal battle has been a 2 1/2-year ordeal in which every imaginable issue has been litigated and appealed.
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.
On Friday, Faulkner's lawyers spent more than four hours in District Court in an effort to ensure that she would receive a fair hearing in her audition for the college band and that if accepted, she would be able to live in the same barracks with other band members.
Faulkner's days in court are far from over. This fall, Houck will hear testimony about whether the state's $10 million plan to create a women's program at Converse College, a private college in Spartanburg, S.C., will satisfy constitutional concerns about unequal educational opportunities for men and women.
If the courts rule for the state, Faulkner could be bounced out of The Citadel long before she can earn the school's coveted graduation ring, a key that opens doors in political and professional circles throughout South Carolina.
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 in Lexington. The Justice Department is appealing. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Shannon Faulkner reported to barracks with her parents, her lawyers
and federal marshals on Saturday, her first day as a member of The
Citadel Corps of Cadets in Charleston, S.C. She is the only cadet to
have a room to herself, and security cameras will monitor the
hallway in front of her door.
Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Shannon Faulkner stands with some members of her company in The
Citadel barracks area Saturday.
KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY THE CITADEL by CNB