Action Would Keep Citadel All-Male

A private women’s college voted Thursday to go along with a plan to keep women out of the all-male Citadel, agreeing to sponsor an alternative program for women seeking to become cadets.

Converse College trustees approved, on a voice vote, the state’s proposal to create a women’s leadership program, President Sandra Thomas said. About 25 trustees were present, and only one dissented.

“The most important thing was to preserve single-gender education in South Carolina,” Thomas said.

But junior Laurie Giles disagreed, saying an unofficial poll of students found a majority were against the program.

“They’re just helping give The Citadel an excuse,” she said. “What The Citadel is doing is wrong.”

The $10 million program could begin by August, the deadline the courts have set for The Citadel to admit Shannon Faulkner as a cadet or provide her with an alternative.