Sunday, August 16, 1998 FORMER 'RAT' SAYS VMI LIFE TOO STRUCTURED Jen Jolin says she doesn't regret 6-month stay By MATT CHITTUM ROANOKE TIMES Jolin won't be among them, but 34 women, including 14 Virginians, will join about 415 men Monday to test their mettle in the institute's rat line. She kept the haircut. Outside of that, Jen Jolin has pretty much put her six-month stint as one of the first women to attend Virginia Military Institute behind her. "It was good for me. I kind of needed that taste of the real world, but it kind of smacked me on the butt and sent me home," she said. "I kind of have this theory now that I'm too much of a free thinker" to get along in a structured environment like VMI. A year ago, Jolin and 29 other women joined VMI's first coed class. Jolin and six others went home early. She left just a week before the muddy "breakout" ritual that signals the end of the tough times in the infamous "rat line." On Monday, 34 more women and about 415 men will arrive to test their mettle in the rat line. The women include 14 Virginians, mostly from Northern Virginia and the Richmond and Tidewater areas. None is from the Roanoke Valley. Four are from California, with others coming from as far away as Kenya, Taiwan and Romania. Jolin, meanwhile, will begin commuting to Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, and continue working at a pizza parlor in her hometown of Monterey. Academically, she'll be starting over as a freshman. Her grades at VMI were so poor she didn't even request to have them transferred. They were part of the reason Jolin decided to leave. She also was buried up to her epaulets in demerits. Trouble just seemed to find Jolin, as well as her best friend at VMI, Brooke Green of Long Island, N.Y. Green is suspended for demerits, but plans to return to VMI next fall, Jolin said. The two were not involved in the most public scandals from last year, including sexual relations in barracks and some hazing allegations that stemmed from freshmen "rats" being struck with belts and coat hangers. But Jolin wasn't far removed from some of that trouble. Three seniors, including Jolin's senior mentor, John Gonzalez, were suspended for striking George Wade Jr., a former rat from Henrico County. Two of the seniors and a third who was not suspended have since been indicted for hazing. But Jolin avoided getting the belt licks because Gonzalez and his friends hid the practice from her. "I was kind of kept to the side during that whole thing," she said, "and that was probably better for them. If I'd have known about it, I probably would have been a part of it, actually." She said she understood it to be a way to honor the seniors, by volunteering for the licks. Jolin figures that if she'd been involved, the seniors would have received the same punishment, but it would have been a "much bigger deal." VMI officials are out to eradicate that behavior this year. Commandant Jim Joyner said the corps will be reminded of that rule, as well as some others. Rules about sex in the barracks - or anywhere in uniform - have been clarified, along with the accompanying penalties. Sexual intercourse, any form of consensual sexual activity illegal in Virginia, and any form of physical contact that can produce sexual gratification are prohibited. Violations mean expulsion. After leaving VMI, Jolin kept up with school news through her friend Green. "It was almost kind of like being there, but without the headache," she said. Only once did life at VMI get scary, Jolin said. A senior known for his penchant for harassing the women stopped her in the barracks one day. Jolin said she was afraid, because the senior kept his hand over his name tag, a sign to her that he knew he could get in trouble for what he was about to do. When it began to get ugly, another senior stepped out of his room and intervened. This year, there will be 22 women to join in harassing the rats, and they are expected to be harder on the new women than on anyone else. "I think they're going to be very enthusiastic participants," Joyner said. All in all, though, cadets can breathe easier than last year, when the world was watching to see how women would fit in at the institute. That goes for the freshmen, too, who don't have the pressure of being trailblazers. "To a certain extent, they can get on about the usual business of being rats," Joyner said. Jolin offers the new recruits this advice: "Just keep your head up, and know that it's never anything personal. And if they're picking on you and singling you out, it's only because they consider you a challenge." She has no regrets about her time at VMI. "This is something I can tell somebody, like years down the line," she said. "People have sort of an admiration about what I've been through, and that makes me feel better about having left."