Sunday, August 31, 1997 On coed front, no news is good news as first two weeks are uneventful So far, VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III is viewing the goings-on from the catbird seat By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES Virginia Military Institute's first coed Rat Mass has played its first prank on some unsuspecting upperclassmen, and at least one of the first women to attend the college has already earned a trip before the disapproving Rat Disciplinary Committee. But the first two weeks of coeducation at VMI have been otherwise uneventful. For Superintendent Josiah Bunting III, that translates to successful. "I have the sense of being assigned here as the coach of a great football team with virtually every position being very deep and very skilled," he told the board of visitors at its first meeting since women arrived Aug.18. He gave credit to the cadet leaders and Col. Michael Bissell, who served as executive director of the assimilation plan and received the VMI Achievement Medal at the meeting, for the so-far smooth execution of what he called VMI's "one overwhelming mission" for this year: integrating women "in a way that preserves the raw essentials of a VMI education and keeps intact our reputation for principled excellence." But Bunting and others acknowledge that the coed VMI is still in its infancy. There are "a thousand issues to be addressed almost daily," Bunting said, "from the profound to the trivial." VMI chose to go coed after a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that the school could not be both state-supported and all-male. But outside of the presence of women, cadet life has been typical this year. Friday, some upperclassmen drove golf balls across the parade ground and sent a hapless rat, as new cadets at VMI are called, to retrieve them. And sometime last week, according to Senior Class President Kevin Trujillo, the rats seized a rare moment when all the sophomores were out of the barracks and tossed all their mattresses off a balcony into the barracks courtyard. Such "rat missions" are tacitly approved because they demonstrate initiative and bonding. Except for a few members of the bellowing training cadre who "got a little hot" and had to be told to back off, no inappropriate behavior toward female rats has occurred, Trujillo said. One woman complained of being singled out for harassment by the cadre, he said, but she remains at the institute. To date, 2 women and 27 men have quit the ratline, school officials said Saturday. Bunting called the attrition rate this year "almost exactly average." But next week the ratline gets tougher, with the start of "sweat parties," arduous sessions of calisthenics; forced marches; running with rifles around the barracks stoops; and the first meeting of the Rat Disciplinary Committee. At least one woman will meet the RDC for some sweaty calisthenic discipline. Trujillo said Angelica Garza of Fort Belvoir "popped off a little attitude with an upperclassman." Roanoke Realtor Bob Copty, a 1971 VMI graduate attending his first meeting as a member of the board of visitors, said the transition has been great so far, but added, "I think all of us are nervous.'' "I don't think it's over till it's over," said member Rhett Clarkson of Richmond. "I'm still looking over my shoulder."