Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995                   TAG: 9508310065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

COED ROTC STARTS SMOOTHLY AT VMI

"It's a regular class. It might as well be chemistry class," said Bill Steinbach of Midlothian, a rat, or freshman.

Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership students travel to VMI to take mandatory ROTC. That's the major military component of their leadership program, designed to give women a separate-but-equal educational opportunity while keeping VMI all-male.

For now, they probably won't be wandering the VMI post, or campus.

Officials from both VMI and Mary Baldwin College, home to VWIL, acknowledged that the two schools have made an effort to limit interactions outside ROTC, both to maintain the integrity of the single-sex programs, and not to muddy the legal waters. By late next month, the Supreme Court is expected to say whether it will hear the U.S. Justice Department's appeal of its 6-year-old sex-discrimination suit against VMI and the state.

Meanwhile, a few rats let their postures slump just a tad in class Wednesday, one week after joining the "rat line." Among their obligations for the next few months: Walking stiff-necked and taking orders from upperclassmen inside the corps' barracks, and eating meals at attention in the mess hall.