Friday, May 8, 1998 SEX AT VMI ENDS IN DISMISSAL OF SENIOR FEMALE EXCHANGE STUDENT ALSO NO LONGER ON CAMPUS By MATT CHITTUM ROANOKE TIMES VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said the incident involved conduct that he will not tolerate.   A Virginia Military Institute senior caught having sexual relations with a female exchange student in a barracks room has been dismissed just before taking his last exams. The exchange student, also a senior and one of several invited to VMI to help with the assimilation of women into cadet life, was sent back to Norwich University in Northfield, Vt. It was the third incident of its kind in this first year of co-education at the formerly all-male college. "This involved conduct which I will not tolerate in the barracks," VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III said in a statement. VMI did not release any details, but a source at VMI said the two were caught naked on a cot in the male cadet's first-floor room. The male senior would have begun his exams Monday and likely graduated May 16, but instead will not be allowed to return to VMI. His punishment was more severe than those involved in the other incidents this year. In an October incident, two first-year cadets who were caught kissing in a darkened room were confined to barracks for several weeks. In March, the same woman and a freshman, who she apparently had an ongoing relationship with, were caught in a sexual encounter and apparently had visited one another's rooms late at night on several occasions. A cadet disciplinary committee recommended a two-semester suspension for them, but the administration instead enacted a "severe penalty" that included confinement for the rest of the year and part of next year. Asked about the severity of the latest penalty compared to the earlier incidents, VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said "different circumstances warrant different penalties."