Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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8 Prologue

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toward the RDC, along with some disagreements on new Blue Book regulations sparked a show of force by the First Class. En route to DRC formation the first classmen, along with several sympathetic underclassmen, deposited their copies of the Blue Book in the Old Courtyard Sentenal Box as the Commandant stood by watching. In an attempt to re-open communication channels between the Corps and the administration, Col. Snyder called a meeting with the First Class. The commandant, upon hearing the grievances of the Corps, was very responsive to their complaints, and managed to work out many of the problems to the satisfaction of both parties. The Commandant did, however, indicate in his meeting with the First Class that many of the policies complained about were not of his making, and he could do very little to change them. He did, however, agree to make the feelings of the Corps known at the opposite end of the Parade Ground through the channels of communication open to him. Satisfied that all had been settled, or soon would be, the barracks returned to a state of normalcy . . . academics, along with the pace of the Ratline continued to increase. Wrapped up in their own private world of stiff academics, thoughts of gradua- tion, and attempting to teach their dykes the skills A Year of Change Prologue 7

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A Year of Change necessary to make it through VMI, the First Class was caught totally unprepared for the series of changes the administration began in mid-October. Unknown to the majority of the Corps, a senes of meetings between the Cadet Captains and the Com- mandant were held, and plans to integrate the Rats in- to Old Corps Ranks were initiated. In addition to in- tegration in ranks, a new Mess hall seating plan was devised which called for all members of the Corps to have assigned seats, and the dispersement of Rats throughout the tables. When news of these changes reached the First Class, they were outraged at having been left out of such an important decision. The Corps, and especially the First Class, felt that such an act by the administration constituted a violation of Corps terntory as they considered the Ratline theirs to run. The First Class argued that by breaking up the Rat Battalion the Rats would no longer receive the intense level of pressure in ranks that could be generated in Rat Ranks by the Cadre. In response to the complaints about integration, the administration pointed out that early Rat integration had, for years, been the rule, and it was only in very recent history that the Rat Battalion J I?3i Prologue 9