Wednesday, August 20, 1997 Rats' health will be closely monitored As 30 women begin VMI's 'ratline' training, the administration has an intense interest in their health -- from pelvic stress to the regularity of their menstrual cycles By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES Col. Michael Bissell got a big lesson in how women are physically different from men long before he became the executive director of Virginia Military Institute's plan to assimilate women. He was acting chief of staff for the 101st Army Airborne Division during a field exercise in Germany. Within a few days of the start of the exercise, 90 percent of the women in the division developed urinary tract infections because of inadequate time and facilities for bathing. So when the first 30 women begin the rigors of VMI's "ratline" training regimen today, they will be under the watchful eye of an administration with an intense concern for their health - from pelvic stress fractures to the regularity of their menstrual cycles. They've hired Dr. Jane Horton as a part-time internist with particular knowledge of nutrition and women's health. Even the women's shower facilities - 10 individual stalls with curtains and drains - were designed with an eye for reducing the chance of passing infection, though the campus doctor said that was overkill. Keeping the women healthy is paramount in a culture based on what Col. Alan Farrell, VMI Dean of Faculty, calls an "intolerance of human frailty." A rat, or new cadet, who spends too much time "on the gim," as the sick list is called, tends to lose the respect of the upperclassmen. The corps has nicknames for sickly rats: "gim-rider" and "gim company commander." So far, all of the rats seem to be holding up fine, though one rat dropped out Monday before he even got his hair cut. But the hard part hasn't started. Tuesday morning, the rats' second day on campus, they had an hour-long workout of light calisthenics at 6 a.m., ending with a mile-and-a-half run. One rat, a male, had to take a break and catch his breath at one point, but Brad Wineman, a member of the training cadre from Marlton, N.J., reported "no major problems" with the female cadets. "We work on the premise that most of the new cadets come here out of shape, and we're given a short time to bring them up to speed," Wineman said. Whether the women are in shape to begin with has a lot to do with their health during the ratline training period, VMI physician David Copeland said. He cited a study done at West Point that found that women at the Army service academy used the medical facilities twice as much as men, and that the women who saw the doctor most were the ones who arrived at school the most out of shape. Copeland has instructed the training cadre, which will put the rats through their paces over the next week, to be on the lookout not only for the usual heat exhaustion and blisters, but for women complaining of pelvic pain, which could indicate a pelvic stress fracture. Two of the four women who entered The Citadel last year during that school's first year of coeducation wound up in the hospital less than two weeks into the year with pelvic problems caused by marching. Their ensuing long-term sick leave turned many cadets against the women, because it appeared they were getting special treatment. The combined physical and mental stress of the ratline, with all its yelling, push-ups and high-intensity "sweat parties," also can cause a woman's menstruation to become irregular or stop altogether, Copeland said. "I expect half the women to have changes in their regular cycles," he said. A stoppage in a woman's menstrual cycle isn't inherently dangerous, Copeland said, but if the condition goes untreated, it can lead to a loss of calcium and increased risk of stress fractures. At Horton's request, the VMI mess hall will serve milk and yogurt at every meal, to make plenty of calcium available to the rats. Copeland said he also can prescribe hormone supplements, such as birth control pills, to regulate menstrual cycles. Women also tend to have eating disorders when under stress, Bissell said, but a new female counselor hired by the college predicts that will be less of a problem at VMI than at nonmilitary colleges. Rats eat all meals with superiors watching, B.J. Teichman pointed out, so problems will be spotted early. Regardless of their ailment, no rat - male or female - is likely to spend extended periods of time "on the gim." "The upper class tends to work out someone harder if they spend too much time on the gim," Copeland said. So under a new policy, upperclassmen can identify rats who seem to be skipping out and recommend they talk with one of the doctors. The doctors can review the case and recommend that the cadet leave the ratline and try again next year. If the cadet wants to stay, the superintendent makes a ruling.