RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Retired Army Major General Cedric T. Winds will step down from his post in June as the first black director of the Virginia Military Institute.
By 10-6 votes, the School Visitors Committee, an advisory group appointed by the governor, opted out of extending the winning contract after meeting in a closed session shielded from the public.
The expulsion of Victory, a 1985 graduate who served in the Army for over 30 years, was triggered by an increase in diversity efforts at schools after awful reports from the state, but there is also the push to those efforts by some conservative alumni.
“BOV is very grateful for his general victory over his service for his service to the Institute during some very difficult times,” the president of the John Adams Committee said Friday. “The foundation he has provided us ensures that VMI continues to fulfill its important mission of educating future leaders.”
VMI was founded in 1839 in Lexington, the historic town of Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. The school educated Jen. George Patton and George Marshall. They did not accept African Americans until 1968, nor did they accept women until after the 1996 US Supreme Court decision.
And there were no black managers in college until they won. His leadership began around the time VMI made its own racial calculations in 2021 with the release of its nationally approved report.
The report found that “racial slander and jokes are not uncommon” and that “contributes to an atmosphere of hostility towards minorities.” There was “outdated” respect for civil wars and the Confederates. And there was a racial disparity among cadets fired by the Student-run Honorary Court. Sexual assaults were also common, but inadequately addressed.
“While VMI does not have the explicitly racist or sexist policies it implements, the facts reflect the overall racist and sexist culture,” the report states.
After the release of the report, Winds said the schools are already becoming more inclusive and welcome. These efforts included removing the prominent statue of General Jackson who taught at VMI. The school also established a committee focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, hired the first Chief Diversity Officer and created a cadet-led cultural awareness training program.
Some students and alumni celebrated the change, but there was also opposition.
1985 graduate Matt Daniel told the Associated Press in 2023 that VMI cadet diversity training initially “spurred the racial sector and victims.” Daniel said earlier this year that training stopped splitting and that it began to focus more on the social issues cadets may encounter in the military and business world.
That year, the school’s chief diversity officer resigned. VMI has renamed the office where love ran from diversity, equity, and inclusion to diversity, opportunity and inclusion, to coincide with the title of Glen Youngkin’s Diversity Office in Richmond, the Washington Post reported.
Youngkin’s Chief Diversity Officer Martin Brown also visited VMI’s campus in April to lead the training of mandatory staff and faculty members.
Chatting about the future of college victory has escalated in recent weeks. I didn’t want a black director.. Following on, Republican US Rep. Ben Klein I wrote a letter Carol Foy accused Virginia Legislature of blackmailing him “by conditioning on funding for extensions of the supervisor’s contract.” On social media, the state senators were called Klein’s letter “misinformation” and “barbuilt of attack.”
On Friday, Carol Foy called the board’s decision a disappointing.
“Now, the bipartisan Maga Republican appointee has voted to take over the VMI board on the political agenda and end the supervisor’s contract by mistake labeling him as a ‘day rental’,” Carol Foy said. “The central issue is that this action has nothing to do with performance or merit.”
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