Citadel Cadets Caught In Secret Room

Eight Citadel cadets face disciplinary action for using a secret party room under an old barracks where cadets drank in defiance of school rules against alcohol, authorities said.

"They've got some explaining to do," said retired Brig. Gen. Emory Mace, the commandant of cadets.
The eight will appear before a disciplinary board next week. Punishment could include up to 360 "tours" and confinement to campus until the tours are completed. A tour is 50 minutes marching in the barracks while carrying a rifle.

School officials said Thursday the room was found earlier this month.

Christmas lights were strung in the underground utility room and a beanbag chair and an old mattress were used for seating. Officials found four empty liquor bottles and a racial slur on a piece of cardboard on the wall.

"We don't know who did it and probably never will," said Mace, who refused to say what the slur was.

Cadets found a 2-foot trap door beneath a desk that led to the 200-square-foot room, which had a dirt floor and walls.

No one knows exactly how long cadets had been using it, but college spokeswoman Heather Anderson said it may have been used for years.

The Padgett-Thomas barracks, the oldest on campus, was built in 1922 and the trap door and underground rooms were once used for access to pipes and mechanical equipment, she said.

The rooms had been sealed off years ago and maintenance crews on Thursday permanently sealed the trap door, Anderson said.

Mace said the room was discovered during a night inspection to make sure cadets were all in their rooms.

The cadet making the inspection knocked on the barracks room door but did not immediately receive an answer. A few minutes later, five or six cadets came running out. The other cadets came forward later.