Virginia Military Institute alumni share much of their correspondence with me. I can’t come close to publishing it all on this blog. But sometimes a letter illuminates aspects of the ongoing discussion about VMI’s future that have not yet made it into the public domain. The letter below comes from José J. Suárez, an Hispanic alumnus, class of 1982, who was interviewed by the Barnes & Thornburg investigative team that slammed VMI for sexism and racism but feels his views were not reflected in that report. (I have made minor edits for punctuation and style.) — JAB
Dear Members of the VMI Board of Visitors, and the VMI Alumni Association.
I am a proud graduate of the VMI class of 1982. I came to VMI from Puerto Rico, with limited command of the English language. I was one of three (3) Hispanic cadets at VMI during my cadetship.
The cadre, my Brother Rats, the faculty, and the administration helped me to make it through VMI, and to have a great career in the Engineering and the Construction Industry, and consulting, where I advanced to be the Chief Executive of a $3 billion-plus division/company.
I have experienced racism in the U.S. Navy, and in my civilian career, but not at VMI. For this reason, I was flabbergasted by the attack that VMI received via The Washington Post, and the fact that neither the Board of Visitors, the VMI Alumni Associations, and the VMI administration, fought back publicly against these attacks.
As such, I volunteered to be interviewed by the Barnes and Thornburg (BT) lawyers to talk about my experiences as a Hispanic person at VMI. To my dismay, I did not feel that my comments were taken into account, and I was shocked when they said to me that after learning about my career, they were surprised that I had done well, because they knew of no other minority VMI cadets that had excelled after graduating from VMI. To this I responded that Darren McDew (first African-American 1st Captain, and 4-star Air Force General), and Darryl Horne (African-American CEO of Horne International) were my Brother Rats.
In regards to an inordinate amount of African-American cadets being drummed out due to Honor code violations, I told them that one of my BR’s, captain of the VMI football team, and a Caucasian, was drummed out after we beat West Point in 1981. The Honor Court system is fair, and it does not discriminate. None of this feedback came out on their final report. I did raise this matter to the VMIAA, and I asked that the BT final report be rebutted. This did not happen.
As I write this e-mail, I see our beloved school not being defended properly, and the administration attacking alumni for raising concerns about how the DEI efforts are being managed. Frankly, I see no transparency on the latter. This is very concerning. It is disappointing that the attacks on the alumni came from Major General Wins.
I see many “non VMI” alumni filling administration roles at VMI, which is not good, as we need corporate knowledge of VMI to continue to impart our great culture on cadets. The drop of applications/admissions is very concerning; yet blame is being placed on bad publicity on VMI, which we have not addressed.
I urge you to listen to the alumni, ensure that DEI programs do not harm VMI, and bring more VMI graduates to the administration. Above all, ask people like me, and other minorities, to provide feedback on the DEI efforts.
Virginia, the United States, and the world need VMI graduates more than ever. I urge you to right the ship now.
Very respectfully, José
José J. Suárez,M.Eng.,P.Eng. – VMI 1982
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
JS Consulting
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