4
SUMMER '85
TAMU Art Faculty Work
Dick Davison
Karen Hillier
Joe Hutchinson
Bill Jenks
Terry Larsen
Robert Schiffhauer
Alan Stacell
Rudy Vavra
John Walker
Rudder Exhibit Hall through September 30
Daily 8:00 a.m. — 11:00 p.m.
Docent guided tours available
by calling 845-8501
no longer struggle
to achieve respect
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845-2611
In the bad old days, they'd
be spit at out of dormitory
windows as they went by on
runs. Upperclassmen and
even lowly freshman would
refuse to "whip out" to them.
Their dates were few and far
between.
"We were avoided or
shunned, I guess you'd call
it," says Laurie Hazen, a se
nior in V-l. "I'd have fresh
men in a class and after
we'd get to talking, he'd say,
Well, you're nice. I don't
know why they tell us not to
talk to you.'"
"They," Hazen says, were
some of the upperclassmen
in the corps when she joined
in 1982 as a freshman. As
they graduated and left the
corps, she says, so did much
of the prejudice against
women that had flourished
since women were admitted
to the organization in 1974.
"I never get any of that
anymore," she says. "They
seem to realize that not only
are we here to stay but that
we really have something to
offer. They know we're not
just women playing army."
When women were first
admitted to the Corps in the
fall of 1974, they lived
spread out around campus
or in apartments. They
drilled in civilian clothes be
cause no uniforms were
available. And they faced
widespread disrespect from
other cadets and non-regs,
many of whom thought
women had no place in the
Corps and never would.
Now there are two female
units in the Corps, three
women in the band, and
one woman on Corps staff
living in the all-male Corps
staff dorm. And although
there are no women in the
Ross Volunteers, Kevin Whi
taker, commander of the
unit, says women's applica
tions are being considered
seriously for the first time.
"There presently are no
women (in the Ross Volun
teers)," he says. "But that's
not saying that it will stay
that way."
Whitaker says women
have applied for mem
bership in the elite unit be
fore, but that their applica
tions had never been taken
senously until this year.
"It's basically a change in
our attitude," he says. "It's
like the band. Once we sat
down and thought about it.
there’s really no reason why
they shouldn't be in it."
The change in attitude has
stretched beyond one single
group through the whole
Corps, he says. And if the
change hasn't been com
plete the prejudice has sub
merged to the point where
it's no longer acceptable for
cadets to make derogatory
comments about the women
in the Corps, Whitaker says.
"I'm not saying that every
guy in the Corps likes them
but the attitude has changed
dramatically," he says.
Probably the most dra
matic example of the
change is Mandy Schubert,
who joined the Corps staff as
administrative sergeant last
year. As part of her job, she
supervises Corps commu
nications and assists the
chairman of March to the
Brazos. As a member of
Corps staff, it's also part of
her job to live with the rest of
the staff in an all-male dorm.
"They gave me a choice
about where to live," she
says. "But to really do my
job, I felt like it was best to
live with the staff. It's worked
out so smoothly. They re
spect me and I respect
them."
Schubert, a junior from
Houston, also says the mu
tual respect she enjoys now
wasn't always there.
"But it just evolved to the
point where the people that
didn't like us and who were
brainwashed against us
were out of the Corps," she
says. "Now I hate to talk
about male and female in it.
To me we're all cadets."
Schubert says she joined
the Corps becase she
wanted to be involved on
campus.
"I knew what I was getting
into but I didn't predict some
of the reactions I was get
ting," she says. "It hurt not
being accepted but you
have to overcome that and
sell yourself."
An opportunity for a mili
tary commission was the tra
ditional reason for joining
the Corps, Schubert says.
Nancy Hedgecock, a junior
from Hamburg, Arkansas
,
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