THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250406
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: 39 lines
Four women have been accepted as cadets at the formerly all-male Citadel military school, and at least one is planning to enroll this fall, a federal judge was told Wednesday.
``The Citadel is operating under the assumption that women will be there,'' Citadel lawyer Dawes Cooke told a U.S. District Court judge overseeing the school's admittance of women.
Two of the women who have been accepted have indicated they plan to attend school elsewhere this fall, but two others have paid nonrefundable $150 room deposits. One is Kim Messer, 17, of Clover.
``She had decided to go to (a military school in) New Mexico because at that time The Citadel had not decided to accept women,'' said her mother, Bobbie Messer. ``But The Citadel is where she always wanted to go to, and now she will go there.''
The hearing was the first before Judge C. Weston Houck since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the all-male admissions policy at Virginia Military Institute was uncon-sti-tu-tional.
Two days later, The Citadel's governing board voted to accept women, ending its 153-year tradition of males only.
Four women had applied prior to the Supreme Court ruling and one applied afterward.
The Citadel made headlines in 1995 when it tried to prevent Shannon Faulkner from becoming its first female cadet. Faulkner sued, and Houck ordered her let in.
She dropped out after less than a week, citing the stress of her 2 1/2-year legal battle and her isolation on campus.
Faulkner's lawsuit is still active, although she has been replaced as plaintiff by another aspiring cadet. Among the issues to be decided are payment of legal fees and judicial oversight of The Citadel's future acceptance of women. by CNB