Wednesday, October 08, 1997 No kissy, no huggy at VMI Rats, you've got to hide your love away A Brother Rat and a Sister Rat were caught smooching under a desk in a barracks room at VMI. By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES    It certainly wasn't the first time a male cadet and a woman got caught kissing in the Virginia Military Institute barracks, but it was the first time the woman was a "Brother Rat."     And now both kissers are in trouble.     The two "rats," a male and a female from the same company, got caught in mid-smooch under a desk the night of Sept. 20 by a member of the barracks guard checking why the lights were out in the room.     The transgression was serious enough to warrant a review late last week by the cadet Executive Committee, which handles the most serious disciplinary violations by cadets, such as hazing. Both were put on campus confinement for a month and given penalty marching tours.     It was the first known violation of the school's new anti-fraternization rules, which forbid public displays of affection and relationships within the corps chain of command. Cadets must also have lights on and door shades up when members of both sexes are in a room.     The forbidden lip-lock came as a surprise to few, though.     "You've got males and females," said Mike Strickler, VMI public information director, "and, you know, things like that'll happen."     "I can promise you there's not a single alumnus that's shaking his head in disbelief," offered Roanoke real estate agent and 1970 VMI grad Bill Gearhart. "She's definitely not the first girl to get smooched in barracks."     He could remember at least three times he stole past the barracks guard with a date.     The women were usually brought in through a window, Gearhart said, or if it was winter, they might wrap themselves in a VMI uniform coat and hat and enter incognito.     But administrators are quick to draw a line between a relationship with someone outside the corps of cadets and someone in it. This the first year women have been admitted to VMI.     "I think it's very serious because it starts breaking down the solidarity of the rat mass coming together," said Col. Mike Bissell, the director of VMI's plan to assimilate women.     "Everyone is supposed to be equal, everyone is supposed to work together to the same degree," said media relations cadet Tom Warburton of Pulaski. As soon as you have two people relating not as brothers, but as boyfriend and girlfriend, that equality begins to dissolve, he said.     Bissell was quick to point out that the cadets, who run the ratline training system at VMI, showed intolerance for the behavior.     "We're going to have these problems," Bissell said. "We just have to make sure they are minor and not severe."