A months-long special investigation into alleged racism at Virginia Military Institute is complete. The state released the 145-page report detailing its findings on Tuesday.
AMY FRIEDENBERGER
The Roanoke Times
A final report examining Virginia Military Institute s culture and policies was published Tuesday, closing out a five-month investigation that was prompted by allegations of racism.
The final report prepared by an investigative team recommends that VMI acknowledge that there are racial and gender disparities in how cadets are treated and that the military institute s culture creates and reinforces barriers to addressing those problems. The report states that because VMI is a state-supported college, taxpayers and the General Assembly must hold VMI accountable for implementing improvements. VMIâs overall unwillingness to change â or even question its practices and traditions in a meaningful way â has sustained systems that disadvantage minority and female cadets and faculty, and has left VMI trailing behind its peer institutions, investigators wrote. If VMI refuses to think critically about its past and present, and
Major General Cedric Wins unanimously selected as VMI Superintendent
Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, who was named interim superintendent of Virginia Military Institute amid a controversy over the school’s ties to the Confederacy, has been unanimously voted to become the first Black man to lead the school. A news release from VMI says the vote was taken Thursday. Wins is a 1985 graduate of VMI. He took over after the resignation of now retired Army Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III. Peay’s ouster followed the publication of a story by The Washington Post which described an “atmosphere of hostility and cultural insensitivity.”