The Virginia Military Institute's Board of Directors voted Friday to extend the contract for Major General Cedric T. Winds, the university's first black director.
The school's Visitors Committee, which voted 10-6 to not extend the general victory contract, gave no official reason for the decision made after a closed session that lasted more than two hours.
The move followed years of pushback from conservative college alumni who opposed the general victory “wake-up” effort to increase campus diversity. And following the charges from the Virginia Senator, efforts to remove him were racially motivated.
The school is the oldest state-backed military university in the country, with all students taking part in training reserves, the path to a leadership role in the US military. General Wins, a VMI alumnus, was appointed to work in 2021, but was tentatively launched the previous year. He was responsible for removing the statue of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a Confederate general who was prominently placed on campus.
He also led an effort to increase campus diversity just before he took over, following a 2020 report of “relentless racism” experienced by black cadets by the Washington Post. Subsequent state investigations concluded that VMI had a racist and sexist culture.
When the statue was removed, the general victory acknowledged Jackson's relationship with the school where he was an instructor, and his strong opinion on the decision. “Changes can be difficult, but it's time for our beloved institutions to move forward,” Winds said in a statement at the time.
Over the past few years, even before the general victory contract approached renewal, the alumni group known as the Spirit of VMI campaigned to end what was called the “wake-up” attack at a university in Lexington, Virginia.
Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, a black VMI alumnus, said in an interview that VMI Visitors Committee Chairman John D. Adams was a lawyer and former Navy officer. Adams' spokesman, another VMI alumni, also voted not to extend the general victory contract, said Adams has denied it.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has appointed 13 of the 17 members of the board since taking office in 2022, but the Democratic state senator recently rejected two of the governor's appointees. (One board member did not vote on Friday.)
Carol Foy said the removal of a general victory after 34 years in the U.S. Army was particularly troubling given his recent exile as chairman of the recent co-head of the Trump administration's recent Charles Q. Brown Jr. General Brown is also black.
Former Virginia governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat and alumni at a school he served in the Army, criticised the move. “Our country has crushed too many patriotic military leaders this week, and now Virginia is doing that,” he issued an email statement.
A general victory with the contract expired on June 30th was not immediately reachable due to comments. The school also did not immediately provide comment.
