The oldest senior military college in the US has become embroiled in a very modern form of culture warfare after a group of alumni organized a campaign to furiously protest the school’s recent diversity offensive.
The controversy at the Virginia Military Institute has been simmering since October 2020, when then-Governor Ralph Northam ordered an investigation into reports of widespread racism at the institution and the school board voted to remove a Confederate statue on campus.
In a twist of fate, the two sides in the VMI culture war are being led by “brother rats,” as VMI classmates are known, who both graduated from college in 1985, according to a Tuesday Washington Post report.
The belligerents are retired Army Major General Cedric T. Wins, 59, VMI’s first black superintendent, and Matt Daniel, 60, a white ex-Marine who founded a PAC called “Spirit of VMI,” which reports and lobbies against Wins has launched “Diversity Push.
“Repel guard attack on VMI, close ranks,” reads one of the PAC websites, adding, “We stand for a strong VMI with a proud history and a bright future.”
VMI Superintendent Cedric T. Wins (left) faced opposition to the school’s diversity initiatives with Matt Daniel (right), his former VMI classmate
VMI’s visitors’ panel ordered the removal of a statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in 2020, days after the Virginia governor ordered an investigation into allegations of racism
The PAC has attacked Wins and the VMI board, questioning their decision to give him a $100,000 bonus on top of his $656,000 annual salary after the school suffered a 25 percent drop in freshman enrollment had.
Spirit of VMI has also published cartoons satirizing Wins, who appointed the college’s first chief diversity officer.
The VMI is one of six United States Senior Military Colleges, the state-run institutions designated by federal law to provide programs for the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Established in 1839, VMI became a major source for Confederate officers during the Civil War and accepted no black cadets until 1968 and women until 1997.
The college remains majority white and majority male, with black students making up about 8 percent of the 1,500 cadets and women 13.5 percent.
In October 2020, a Post article alleging “implacable racism” at VMI prompted Northam to order the state investigation into the allegations.
Days later, VMI’s Visitors Committee ordered the removal of a statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson from campus, and the following month the board appointed Wins interim superintendent, later making the appointment permanent.
Wins was tasked with guiding VMI through a turbulent time, leading the response to the state-ordered inquiry that emerged in June 2021 and found that the school tolerated and did not address institutional racism and sexism.
Initially, his former classmate Daniel Wins was publicly supportive, writing an encouraging note in Alumni magazine stating, “If ever there was a leader to take the helm and navigate VMI through such strange and dark, shark-infested waters, it would be it was Cedric winning.’
“Repel guard attack on VMI, close ranks,” reads one of Spirit of VMI PAC’s websites
The Spirit of VMI group has published cartoons like this one, poking fun at the college’s diversity push
Daniel (left) and Wins (right) can be seen in their VMI yearbook photos. Both graduated from military school in 1985 but now find themselves on opposite sides of a cultural battle
But when Wins oversaw reforms like the removal of the Confederate emblem from campus and hired diversity, equity and inclusion advisors to advise the college, he faced the wrath of Daniel’s Spirit of VMI PAC.
“Often broadly described as a form of political correctness, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a Marxist doctrine at the heart of the malignity of identity politics,” the group said in a statement earlier this month.
“Similar to a ubiquitous cancer that has seemingly metastasized overnight across the country, DEI sows division, destruction and discord wherever it has been allowed to fester,” the PAC added.
Wins has rarely responded directly to the group’s allegations, but he took to Facebook in a rare post last year and slammed a VMI grad who accused the school of being overwhelmed by critical race theory.
“This is categorically wrong,” Wins wrote. “We move forward, looking to the future, with foundations of Institute foundations defended and brighter days ahead, with all that is essential intact and continuing with citizen-soldier production.”
In December 2020, Wins issued a statement defending the removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue, which was moved to be displayed at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.
“To say the statue’s move provoked strong opinions on both sides of the issue is an understatement,” Wins said.
In December 2020, a statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was removed by the VMI to be displayed at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park
Wins (second from left) is seen at a recent VMI tape cut. He has defended his diversity push as strengthening the college for the future
“VMI is not defined by this statue and therefore this move is appropriate,” he added. “While change can sometimes be difficult, it is time for our beloved institution to move forward, strengthen our unique education and training system, and nurture the leaders of tomorrow.”
Davis Estes, a close friend of Wins who also traveled with Daniel and attended his wedding, told the Post that he believes Daniel and the PAC are unnecessarily demonizing justice.
“My assessment is that the PAC’s long-term concern is that VMI will no longer serve primarily young white males and that white male enrollment will decline and be overshadowed by minority and female enrollment,” said Estes, 59, a black former financial adviser .
“You will promote DEI and all the cultural changes that the Superintendent promotes as a critical race theory and a bogeyman ready to destroy VMI,” he said. “They will use conservative print and radio media to promote their fight against change and assert themselves as victims.”
In the summer of 2021, an independent law firm released its findings into an investigation into allegations of racism at VMI conducted under Northam’s order.
The report found that “racist slurs and jokes are not uncommon” and “contribute to an atmosphere of hostility toward minorities.”
Among other things, the report found that racial disparities exist among cadets fired by the school’s student-run court of honor. Cadets of color make up 23 percent of the corps but account for 41 percent of those discharged since 2011.
The report also said sexual assault is widespread but undertreated at the country’s oldest state-supported military college. A survey found that 14 percent of female cadets said they had been sexually assaulted, while 63 percent said a fellow cadet had told them he or she had been the victim of a sexual assault.
“The racist and misogynistic acts and findings uncovered during this investigation are disturbing,” the report said. “Although VMI does not have any explicitly racist or sexist policies that it enforces, the facts reflect a general racist and sexist culture.”
The report said the state should require VMI to provide quarterly reports on diversity and inclusion efforts, adding that VMI “is unlikely to deliver on its promised reforms unless compelled to do so.”
Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins (left) is seen during his active duty days when he was the commanding general of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
Cadets march in formation outside barracks at VMI. Two classmates who were born in 1985 are fighting over the management of the military school
A statue of George C. Marshall on the VMI campus. Marshall graduated from VMI in 1901
Wins replied at the time that the school was already on the way to becoming more inclusive and welcoming.
Wins added that after “digging deep into VMI’s policies,” he developed an action plan to better unite the cadets.
“And now it’s up to us to take the report along with our visitors’ committee and look at it and understand what the recommendations are,” Wins told The Associated Press during a phone interview. “And we will certainly be having discussions with government agencies … and charting a path in terms of the direction we need to go.”
VMI was founded in 1839 in Lexington, a historic town in western Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The school trained Generals George Patton and George Marshall.
In anticipation of the report’s release, VMI highlighted recent diversity and inclusion efforts in early 2021.
This includes forming a committee focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. The school also hired its first chief diversity officer and created a cadet-led cultural awareness training program.
The school said enrollment for cadets of color has increased from 12.7 percent in 1992 to 23.4 percent in 2020, and that people of color make up 11 percent of full-time tenure-track faculty members.
VMI also said it is one of the largest producers of minority officers in the US military.
VMI also objected to some of the reporting, saying “(W)had work to do – the ‘clear and appalling culture’ of ongoing institutional racism attributed to us at the outset of this investigation is simply inaccurate.”