Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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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

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8 Prologue

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had been maintained throughout the Ratline. Against the wishes of many members of the Corps, integration eventually became a reality with plans for mess hall in- tegration to follow shortly thereafter. The First Class under an increasing atmosphere of apathy began to question its worth as a class. Unable to fight integra- tion in ranks, it was decided that mess hall integration would not be allowed. Following up on the classes decision to fight mess hall integration, Regimental Commander, Jim Kenkel, twice refused the administration s order to integrate. After managing to hold off integration for a while longer, word came back across the Parade Ground that the Adminstration had the avowed support of the Board of Visitors, and such mutinous behavior would not be tolerated. The First Class, with the threat of possible dismissal for some of its members, was forc- ed to shy away from a confrontation. Mess hall in- tegration soon came into being with the exception that only Rats had assigned seating. With these new policies firmly instituted, the Corps could only look ahead, placing the future of the I squarely on the shoulders of the administration . . . A Year of Change 10 Prologue