VMI Cadet. September 29, 1978

              VOLUME LXVIV Virginia Military Institute/ Lexington, Virginia, September 29, 1978 NUMBERS
On 25 Sept., Cadet Tremaglio, C.J. was posted as the first Rat Sen-tinel
amid all of the traditional ceremony. Cadet Tremaglio. on the
shoulders of two First Classmen, is all smiles as he assumes the
responsibility of guarding the Institute.
Wamer Replaces
Neikirk at Foundation
by Ed Semeia
This past ispring, Mr. Harry
H. Warner, '57, was named as
Executive Vice President of the
V.M.I. Foundation, Inc. He
replaced the retiring Mr.
Joseph D. Neikirk '32, Mr.
Warner will also be Executive
Director of the V.M.I. Develop-ment
Board. Mr. Warner
returns to V.M.I, from Ohio,
where he was president and
director of TransOhio Financial
Corporation, Ohio's largest sav-ings
and loan company.
Mr. Warner will be directing
the activities of the Foundation,
which is the Institute's endow-ment
oi^ganization. Raising
money through investments
and 'a^mnii contributions, the
founda'tioii will be able to r^ise
sufficient funds to support ckdet
scholarships, cadet awards and
activities, faculty graduate and
summer study programs and
other'"institu^jCgJated ac-
• " • "is
of the
Board The BoSWtrSTcreated
last spring and its two niain
functions is to coordinate fiind
raising efforts and to oversee
and conduct major fund drives,
largely through the private sec-tor
which includes alumni con-tributions
and other private
resources. This is in answer to
the state's cutting V.M.I.'s
budget. The other members of
the Board are the Superinten-dent,
the President of the Board
of Visitors, the President of the
Foundation, the President of
the Keydet Club, and the Presi-dent
of the Alumni Association.
While there are no fund rais-ing
activities going on at the
present time, Mr. Warner men-tioned
that announcements will
be made in the near future on
the plans of the Board and the
Foundation.
Mr. Warner graduated as the
Class valedictorian from the In-stitute
in 1957 with a B.A. in
English. He has also graduated
from the School, of Bank
Management, University of
Virginia, 1963; Stonier Graduate
School of Banking, Rutgers
University, 1969; and the
Management Course for
Presidents, American Manage-ment
Association, 1976.
Mr. Warner stated that he has
enjoyed being back at the In-stitute
and he is extremely im-pressed
with the dedication of
the staff and faculty. He also
added that not a whole lot has
changed at V.M.I, since he was
a cadet, and that any changes
have been for the better. He will
be living in Lexington with his
wife and four children.
Financial Aid Committee
Makes Decision on Cars
by Phil Southers
This past week a number of
first classmen were notified
that they could no longer main-tain
their cars with Institute ap-proval.
These men, all on finan-cial
aid, were notified by the
Financial Aid Committee
Chairman, Gen. J. M. Morgan
that they had either one month
to comply or give up their finan-cial
assistance for the entire
year. As most of the Corps is
already aware, this is a signifi-cant
change with respect to the
implemention of the car restric-tion
policy of recent years.
According to Capt. Vern
Beitzel, Financial Aid Officer,
the reason the Committee made
this decision was that they felt
men on financial aid should not
have cars for what amounts to
general principles. There are
significant costs in operating a
motor vehicle whether or not it
is used exclusively for job and
college interviews and trips
home. The Committee feels that
the expenses in maintaining
and operating a vehicle for such
expressed purposes far exceeds
the costs of other transportation
alternatives. The Cadet does
not wish to challenge the above
decisions by the Financial Aid
Committee. In principle the
Cadet agrees with the decisions
made and feels that in general
they are very r^ponsible.
However, the Cadet does wish
to point out a very serious pro-blem
that currently hurts the
first class financial aid reci-pient
who owns a car. Because
of the very inconvenient time of
implementation of this new
policy, many cadets now find
themselves in a position of com-mitted
payments on a car they
cannot use. They must now use
other transportation alter-natives
to meet their interview
commitments, etc. on top of
paying car payments, in-surance,
and the other expenses
of car ownership. In effect, the
financial aid recipient must pay
more to meet these com-mitments
(interviews, etc.)
than a now scholarship student
with similar car expenses. This
is a consideration the Cadet
feels deserves more considera-tion.
Further this entire situation
could have been eliminated if
this decision had been made
^ and announced in the early spr-ing
of last year before most first
classmen made either plans or
commitments to finance cars.
This inconvenience, however,
can still be eliminated if the
Committee would temporarily
hold off on implementing this
policy until August of 1979.
The Cadet would further like to
point out another inconsistancy
of the Committee. Most of the
Corps receives monthly ROTC
payments. However, ROTC
payments are never taken into
consideration when determin-ing
need. Therefore, one could
foreseeably finance "basic
transportation" from these
payments. It would seem to be a
much more consistent policy if
either ROTC payments were us-ed
in determining need or
vehicles of a maximum value
(not to exceed the value of
ROTC payments) were approv-ed
for ownership and operation
by first classmen receiving aid.
As a response to the above
statements Capt. Vern Beitzel
desired the following point to be
made. First of all, the restric-tions
of the financial aid reci-pient
are clearly listed on the
back of the individual's con-tract.
Men know these restric-tions
when they sign their con-tracts.
Capt. Beitzel feels that
Cadets should pay closer atten-tion
to these restrictions and
understand that the restriction
on motor vehicles includes the
operation of not only cars; but
also motorcycles in and outside
of Rockbridge County. Also, he
emphasized that cadets had a
month to take care of their cars
and more time might be
granted if need be. Two final
strong points Capt. Beitzel felt
needed attention were: 1) a
cadet does have the option of
turning down his financial aid
for this year if a car is more im-portant
to him, and 2) the
Financial Aid Committee did
not haphazardly alter its posi-tion
on the implementation of
the car restriction. They did a
careful study of other Virginia
schools before forming V.M.I.'s
current policy.
O n W e d n e s d a y a f l e i l u m n t h e K n u l i s h S p e a k i n } ? I ' n i o n s p o n s u r e d a
p o l o m a t c h u i i i h e p a r a d e g r o u n d . T h e K a r n i i n n t o n H u n t f l u b ol
' C h a r l o t t e s v i i i e d e f e a l e d t h e U r i t i s h A r n u l e a n i,
Correction
by Gary Bowman
Last week, the Cadet
printed a story on the Posit
Committee's work on the
adoption of the summer blouse
and on the revision of
paragraph 202 of the VMI
Regulations. It has come to
the attention of the editor and
of this reporter that much ol
the information in that article
was inaccurate, and therefore
the following correction is sub-mitted.
The Posit Committee is slu
d y i n g the revision of
paragraph 202 of the Blue
Book, the section dealing with
room arrangement, in order lo
make the cadets' rooms in
barracks more comfortable
and conducive to studying. A
subcommittee under Rich
McDonough is studying the
best way to revise the regula-tions,
as Colonel Edgar re-quested
that a study be made
and submitted to him by Oc
tober 1 so the Superintendent
can take action-on it Mr
McDonough's subcommittee
hgs hot yet completed their
study, but when they do it will
be submitted to the Comman-dant
for his perusal.
The new summer blouse,
which the Corps voted to adopt
last spring, is also under study
by the Posit Committee. Since
the adoption of a new uniform
part is such a big step, the
Commandant Col Kdgar, re
quested that studies be made
(continued on page:}>