Citadel improves image

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Seven years ago, male Citadel cadets danced in the rain in bawdy celebration as Shannon Faulkner, the first female cadet, packed to leave after only a week at the school.\nThe image would be replayed on TV for years as an example of how fiercely The Citadel opposed women enrolling at the then-all-male military college.\nOn a stifling, humid day in May, The Citadel presented a very different picture: Seven African-American women preparing to graduate stood in a line wearing the school's dress gray jackets and white pants and said they would recommend the school to anyone who wants a challenge.\nThis fall, the state-supported school welcomed its largest female class ever, making the 125 women total 6.6 percent of the 1,900-cadet student body and surpassing the military college's initial goal for enrolling women.\nIn less than a decade, The Citadel has transformed itself from a male-only bastion of Old South military tradition to a place where women are starting to feel comfortable, learn, rise to leadership positions and succeed.\nAt the same time, The Citadel has quietly launched another change decried by traditionalists: The dismantling of its infamous hazing system in which cadets verbally and physically abused one another.\n"It ain't like the good ol' days, but I think, on balance, The Citadel has evolved," said John West, a 1942 graduate and former South Carolina governor. "We are over the hump now. I think everybody realizes The Citadel won't go to hell in a handbasket for having ladies."\nTo increase its profile among high school students who may be interested in attending The Citadel, the school recently ran ads on the cable networks TNN and MTV in Southeastern markets. It may seem odd for some who associate The Citadel with a tradition of harsh military order and severe gray uniforms to see ads featuring the school during raunchy fare such as "The Osbournes," But Citadel officials say they want to attract mainstream high school students.\nWhether it's coeducation or advertising, something is drawing students, applications shot up to the highest numbers ever in 2002 when 2,057 students applied.\nThe transformation was finally made in the aftermath of a federal court order, new leadership and the support of Citadel alumni. As much as anything, the school is succeeding because The Citadel community acknowledged the school had to change. Still, many say there's still work to be done. Female cadets say they still have it tougher than men because they stand out. That increases the pressure to succeed and also makes them targets for extra chores.\nLife for women at The Citadel is still like being in a fishbowl -- everyone is watching, and one woman's wrong step is counted against the whole group.\n"They know everything about you," said Khadedra Bey, a senior from Houston. "They judge all of us, there's so few of us."\nCadets and others say hazing continues despite efforts to end it.\n"Tradition is hard to dislodge," said Gary Nichols, who's taught at The Citadel for about 35 years. "There are still isolated cases of it. It still goes on in the mess hall ... which is not good because (cadets) sometimes have difficulty getting enough to eat. I know they have trouble getting enough sleep."\nBut the school has cleared a huge hurdle. This spring, the U.S. Justice Department stopped monitoring The Citadel's progress toward coeducation because it was convinced the school had completed the transition.\nMaj. Gen. John Grinalds, a decorated Marine and a Rhodes Scholar who became president of The Citadel in 1997, made changes that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago. He arrived shortly after the first female class finished its first year, arguably the darkest time in The Citadel's history.\nFour women started school in 1996, the first class admitted to a coeducational Citadel. In their first semester, two dropped out and sued, claiming they were hazed, sexually harassed and physically abused by their fellow cadets.\nAfter that, the U.S. Justice Department reported that violent hazing was widespread and systematic.\nGrinalds, who once opposed the admission of women to The Citadel, went to work.\nUnder Grinalds, the scrutiny of the federal courts, the media and a cynical public, the school began altering its program to accommodate women. Dorms and other facilities for women were renovated, the school began mandatory sexual harassment and sensitivity training for all cadets, it hired administrators to serve as mentors and it added women's sports.\nSome male and female students say the abuses are more rare. "Now if it happens, it gets cracked down on," said Paul Steketee, a senior from Augusta, Ga. "I would say it rarely happens."\nGrinalds said he is pleased with the progress. School officials would like to increase the percentage of women to 10 percent or 15 percent, a little less than the proportion of women at West Point and other service academies. That doesn't mean it's been easy for the women who joined the school, shaved their hair like other freshmen, called "knobs," and became a part of a small minority.\nNichols, the professor, said cadets still gripe about female students, but the cadets who partied at Faulkner's failure have graduated, and students say current cadets more or less accept women.\n"It's not like we're all going to pack up and leave tomorrow so you all can have your school back," said Desiree Browning, a junior from Chicago.\nStill, alumni speak with nostalgic reverence for the macho system where everyone began at the same level, deprived of food, sleep, liberty and possessions.\n"When you're stripped down, you really get to see someone for what they are," said Greg Delleney, a 1974 graduate. "As they reduce you and try to break you -- and most people are broken -- when you get to that point, you're built back up because you claw yourself back up."\nAlmost all the alumni interviewed said they wished they could have waved a magic wand to hold time still and keep The Citadel all-male.\nAt the same time, they concede, the arrival of women and the taming of the hazing system were inevitable. Hazing is illegal, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against single-gender public colleges.\n"If we're going to be an inclusive society, then this is the best thing for us," said Tom Slawson, a 1980 graduate.\nThey also say part of The Citadel has gone forever.\n"I don't believe it's as rigorous," Delleney said. "That was a valuable education for a young man, and it's been lost. It's lost to the ages. But I accept that and, like a good Citadel man, I move on"