Page 10/The Battalion/Thursday, April 30, 1987
f
W
omen in Texas
A&M’s Corps of
Cadets have come a
long way since the
days when Reveille
was the only female
in the Corps.
Membership in the Corps was
mandatory for the first 90 years of
the University’s history, but a study
on the future success of A&M
prompted officials to make Corps
participation optional in 1965 —just
two years after the University
opened its doors to women.
The fall of 1963 attracted 183
women among the total enrollment
of 8,122 students.
Within a decade of the repeal of
the mandatory Corps participation
rule, the Corps enrollment dropped
to represent less then one-fourth of
the total enrollment at A&M.
The controversial move that loyal
cadets of the past had stood so firmly
against came in 1974 when women
were admitted into the near 100-
year-old, all-male organization. A
^otal^f^mTsus£ectin^women^^^
entered the Corps of Cadets, most
not even realizing they were doing
something controversial. The
admission of women into the Corps
was a hard pill to swallow for many
die-hard Aggie alumni who
remembered A&M as an all-male
bastion.
Corps Commander Garland
Wilkinson explained the situation
based on the philosophy of former
Corps Commandant Col. Donald C.
Burton: “If military services are
going to have women officers, then
they might as well be Aggie officers.”
The 1987 Corps makes up about 4
percent of Texas A&M’s 36,000-plus
enrollment. Of the 1,700 cadets this
year, only about 70 are women. The
Corps now has three units to serve
women — W-l, Squadron 14 and V-
1 (the off-campus unit).
Today women are wearing boots
and boot pants, marching in the
band, participating in the Ross
Volunteers and even serving in top
staff positions in the Corps.
Although it may seem like women
nil’
A&M, problems still exist.
The cloud of Melanie Zentgraf’s
1979 discrimination suit against
A&M and the Corps of Cadets has
long passed. Names like Amanda
Schubert, Nancy Hedgecock and
Andrea Abat have been included on
the all-male rosters of the Corps
staff, Ross Volunteers and Aggie
Band.
Recent incidents like Simone
Weaver’s bonfire assault in Fall 1986
and the not-so-publicized boot-pants
issue have surfaced during the past
two semesters with more examples
of what a few claim to be inequality
— others say these are simply
isolated personality problems.
Although no women will be on
have fully established themselves at
)Ugt
Corps staff next year, Wilkinson says
opportunities for qualified women
are increasing every year.
“Opportunities for women to
have leadership roles in the Corps
are increasing and very promising in
the future.” he says. “Women are
now accepted in the Corps and they
have proven themselves; it is obvious
WOMEN ON THE MOVE
IN THE AGGIE CORPS
Stories by Daniel A. La Bry
Women in the Corps find
first support in '53 resolution
exas Senator
I William I.
Moore, Class of
’40, introduced a
resolution that
would drastically
, the future of Texas
on March 3, 1953. He
World War 11 and was
experiencing a decline, partially
because of the refusal to become
coeducational. With little
deliberation, the Senate adopted
the resolution by a voice vote.
Henry C. Dethloff, author of
“A Pictorial History of Texas
A&M University, 1876-1976,”
wrote, "Aggie reaction was
characterized by a deluge of
phone calls, telegrams and
tetters, and caused the surprised
Senate to reconsider the vote
and rescind the resolution.”
The next move toward
allowing women to enroll in
A&M came in January 1958
when John M.'Barron, Class of
’35, announced he would file a
suit in behalf of two women for
admission to A&M. Two months
later. Judge William T.
McDonald ruled in favor of the
two women to enroll. A&M
admission and where turned
down. Barron again filed suit in
Judge McDonald’s court.
McDonald, ruling on the basis of
the higher court’s decision in
1958, ruled against admission of
women.
These court cases made
women enrollment a public issue
and attracted media attention.
During the 1959 court case, the
editor of The Battalion was
“busted” in rank because of an
editorial supporting the
admission of women.
The turmoil caused the Board
of Directors (now the Board of
ma
ajor changes occurred at the
College: enrollment was open to
women on a limited basis and
Texas A&M College was
renamed Texas A&M
University, Women no longer
had to meet the “normal
requirements” for admission,
which stated that a female
student had to be the wife or
daughter of an enrolled student,
faculty member or staff
member.
In his book, Dethloff says
President James Earl Rudder
was
The
State Supreme Court refused to
review an appeal by the
plaintiffs.
The fight continued in
September of 1959 when three
Bryan residents applied for
after calling a meeting of the
Corps of Cadets.
Dethloff says by September
1963, 159 women were enrolled
at A&M, but for the most part,
they weren’t welcome. Few
buildings had restrooms for
women, and women’s
dormitories weren’t open until
the fall ofl 972.
At right: Amanda Schubert has broken into the highest ranks
of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. The senior marketing
major is deputy commander of the 1700-member organization.
that women can be capable leaders
in the Corps.”
Amanda Schubert, deputy Corps
commander, has attained the
highest rank of any female cadet in
the 13-year history of women in the
Corps.
Not only has she broken into the
male-dominated ranks of the Corps
staff, but in Fall ’85 she became one
of the first women to be admitted
into the Ross Volunteers. The other
was Nancy Hedgecock, Squadron 14
commander.
Schubert related the women-issue
to a comment made by a former
student at a Muster in Alexandria,
La., in which she was a guest
speaker: “The guy said, ‘You know,
I was wrong. I was one of the biggest
holler-ers when they were going to
let females into the University. I said
it was going to ruin everything. A lot
of us were wrong.’ ”
The “old Ag” finished his
confession by commenting on how
narrow-minded most of the men at
A&M were back then, she says.
each year that handful is getting
’ tnii
Schubert admitted that part of
her success as deputy commander is
directly related to the support she
has received from the other men on
the staff.
smaller and smaller and tnings are
f etting better and better. That’s the
ey to it all.”
But as long as factions of the
Corps have dissenting opinions,
some problems will arise. The 1986
bonfire made the headlines when six
freshmen cadets were accused of
assaulting a women cadet on Nov. 18
— the group was later found guilty
of assault and sentenced to perform
community service.
This wasn’t the first male-female
conflict at a bonfire. The 1978
bonfire —just a semester before the
Zentgraf suit — was the site of a
protest from about 20 women
cadets. It seems the men on the stack
ref used to include a log cut by the
women to represent their unit. The
log was finally put on the stack when
a different group of men started
working, but not before the women
were verbally abused and told to go
home.
In a Nov. 21 Battalion article,
Simone Weaver, the women
assaulted at the 1986 bonfire site,
says she heard “whoops” from men
working on the stack as the group
carried her outside the bonfire
trying to make a point, she wears
boot pants for a reason men may
never fully understand.
“The pants are more comfortable
than the boot skirts. The pants don't
have to be ironed nearly as much,
and they’re more attractive," Crider
says. “I think the problem was the
men were under the impression that
females weren't allowed to wear
pants, and that’s totally wrong.”
Crider described the men’s
reaction as silly. She says one cadet
told her he was opposed to women
wearing boot pants because it was
the last thing the men in the Corps
had.
Schubert says the present
problems in the Corps are isolated
and don’t always represent the belief
of the other cadets.
“1 don’t see it as a male-female
conflict, I think it’s a more an
individualistic conflict," she says.
Interim Corps Commandant
Malon Southerland says male-
female interaction in the Corps has
been f acilitated with a new dorm
‘(The support) was real necessary
tnev (maf
because if they (male staff members)
wouldn’t have supported me, other
people sure wouldn’t have,” she
says.”
Having women in leadership
positions in the Corps will have a
positive long-term effect, Schubert
says.
“When those freshmen come in
and see a female on staff or on the
Fish Drill Team — in a leadership
role — then they automatically think
that’s normal,” she says. “So, of
course, when you have people in
more visible positions, all that does is
help incoming freshmen to realize
that it is normal.”
Schubert attributes her selection
as deputy commander — and
administrative sergeant in 1985-86
— to timing and qualifications. She
says it was time for the selection of
women to high staff positions and
she happened to have the right
qualifications at the right time.
Schubert also says the Corps staff at
that time was comprised of open-
minded cadets who were willing to
work with her.
A quick glance at the history books
show that Schubert’s first
appointment to Corps staff came in
the midst of the Melanie Zentgraf
sex-discrimination suit.
“Of course, everybody says the
Zentgraf decree had just come out
and I was probably a token female,”
she recalls. “They (fellow staff
members) all told me I wasn’t, but
who’s to say.”
There will always be a few people
who disagree with women in the
Corps, the fourth-year cadet says.
“There is still a small handful, but
perimeter.
Weaver, described by other cadets
as an overzealous female, is one of
three women who are venturing into
uncharted territory — and causing a
great deal of controversy.
Several women are wearing boot
pants instead of the boot skirts
normally worn by women with their
senior boots. The Corps uniform
standard has listed the pants as an
option for women since they were
first allowed to wear boots in 1979,
but the women have only worn the
pants infrequently since then and
most have opted for the skirts,
saying they were more flattering.
Many male cadets don’t like the
boot pants.
Doug Hall, a senior cadet, says
women wearing boot pants just isn’t
right and the idea of some women
using the pants to push a point is
worse. He added he knows a lot of
men who feel the same way but just
quietly accept it.
Most male cadets accept the
women until they start pushing their
point — like with bonfire or boot
pants, he says, and that’s when the
men start giving those certain
women a hard time,
Weaver, who describes herself as
not being overzealous but just
having an outgoing personality, says,
“Women have been wearing pants
since the turn of the century, it’s not
something new. When women first
got boots, they didn’t wear boot
skirts — they wore boot pants. It’s
just that nobody has done it in a
while.
“We have earned the right to wear
boot pants like any other senior
cadet.”
Women cadets have been wearing
senior boots since 1979.
Carolyn Crider, another boot-
wearing women cadet, says she isn’t
arrangement.
“This year will likely godownasa
year in which they (women) hadaloi
of progress, for simply one reason-
tliey moved into resident halls with
their male counterparts in the
Corps,” Southerland says. "That
caused both parts — male and
f emale — to nave the feeling that
they were truly part of the Corps of
Cadets to a degree greater than
when the women lived in separate
resident halls with other civilian
women students.”
In the near future, the Corps
plans to move each female unit into
dorms with the other male units in
their respective major groups.
Southerland says this move could be
interpreted as further progress
toward the full, active participation
of women in the Corps.
Dawn Simmons, commander of
W-1, says the new dorm
arrangement has improved the
communication problems between
the male and female units, andithas
improved male-female relations in
the Corps.
“When we were living in Dorm5
we were our own little Corps; we had
never been close enough to the men
in their own environment to bepart
of the Corps,” she says. “Wewerein
our own little world and we did our
things the way we thought were
right, but we didn’t know. Now that
we’re living here, we see how it
should be done."
The problems between men and
women in the Corps stem fromtht
fact that they don’t know each other
well, she says, not because the men
hate the women.
“When we moved into First
Battalion, they had a cow,” Simmon!
recalls. “They didn’t want us over
here; they didn’t want us in their
battalion. And now that we’re here,
they can’t complain because were
the best unit in the battalion. Alotof
them know us better now; they're
our best friends."
Photo by Bill Hugh?
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