ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612130032
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: The VMI Class of 2000
The VMI class of 2000 has been a bunch of marked men almost since the day they arrived in Lexington. A six-year legal battle to keep VMI all-male had come to end, and when the dust settled, the class of 2000 became the last all-male rat mass in the school's 157-year history.
We set out to document, in an occasional series, the class's freshman year, from matriculation day in August through "break-out" this spring.
The first installment, which ran Sept. 29, followed members of VMI's class of 2000 from their first push-ups through the night they met their cadet big brothers. It ended with the celebration at New Market battlefield, where 10 of their VMI brothers perished during the Civil War.
Today's story begins just a few days after the Sept. 21 vote by the school's Board of Visitors to admit women and follows the rats through what little social life they have, from dating to football games, from the dread of meals in the mess hall to the mud and sweat of the Rat Olympics.
More stories will come as the rats make their way through the rat line to a steep, mud-slick hill in the woods at the back of campus. One day this spring, the rats will climb that hill to freedom.
LENGTH: Short : 30 linesby CNB