Tag: Virginia Military Institute
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Racism at VMI? Not That This Hispanic Alum Ever Saw
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…
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Wins Defends LGBTQIA+ Performance Artist at VMI
The rhetorical battle at the Virginia Military Institute rages like the Bloody Angle in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. In this ongoing war of words, VMI Superintendent Cedric Wins is like the corps commander who wanders dangerously close to the battlefront. Rather than rely upon subalterns and proxies to speak for him, he has waded…
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Cultural Death Wish
by James A. Bacon In my previous post I gave a just-the-facts-ma’am account of the controversy over the appearance of gay- and fat-rights performance artist Kimberly Dark at the Virginia Military Institute. In this column, I’ll give my personal reaction. There are three elements to the controversy (1) the incident is solid evidence that VMI…
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Does VMI Oppress Fat People?
by James A. Bacon Last night the Virginia Military Institute hosted Kimberly Dark, a gay- and fat-rights activist, at its Gender Inclusion Dinner. The VMI website has published no information about the event. But in her website, Dark said she intended to address “the ways in which women and LGBTQ+ cadets, along with those who…
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“Too Thin”
by Donald Smith The Virginia Military Institute’s hands were tied, it seems. It tried for months to justify leaving an inscription of Stonewall Jackson’s name on an arch at the Old Barracks on VMI’s Main Post. But the school’s leadership couldn’t find a way, so it chose… to take a sandblaster to the National Historic…
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FIRE to VMI: Hands Off the Independent Student Newspaper
by James A. Bacon The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has asked the Virginia Military Institute to refrain from pressuring an independent student newspaper, The Cadet, to change its editorial stances. “Cadet staff have faced interference from VMI leadership, including pressure to make the paper’s content more flattering to the Institute, suppression of…
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Why the Enrollment Decline at VMI? Look to White Males for an Explanation.
by James A. Bacon When the Virginia Military Institute re-opened for its fall semester Monday with its usual parade-ground pageantry, it counted only 375 cadets in the 1st-year class. That’s down 24% from 494 the previous year. “We believe there are a number of contributing factors,” says VMI spokesman Bill Wyatt. “Schools throughout the commonwealth…
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Why So Few Cadets on VMI Matriculation Day?
by Carmen Villani On August 20, 2022, Virginia Military Institute’s Superintendent Major General Cedric Wins announced that a total of 372 matriculants (or “Rats” by tradition) had signed in, officially beginning their four-year journey through the trials, tribulations, traditions, and triumphs of the Institute. But this year’s incoming class was considerably smaller than the school’s…
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Division Ends Today at the Virginia Military Institute
by The Cadet Editorial Staff To the families of matriculants: This is a difficult day for you. As you leave your daughters and sons to face the struggles and challenges that they are about to meet, take heart in the fact that you, too, are about to become a part of the VMI family. Today…
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A Sneak Peak at VMI’s Diversity Training
by James A. Bacon Virginia Military Institute cadets will return to class in a week or so. At some point during the semester, they will undergo a round of “Inclusive Excellence” training. In June VMI’s chief diversity officer, Jamica Love, briefed the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion subcommittee of the Board of Visitors on what that…
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The Only Thing “Systemic” About VMI Is the WaPo’s Cherry Picking of Data
by James A. Bacon Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira was up to his old tricks in an article published over the weekend about Governor Glenn Youngkin’s appointments to the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors. Predictably, he portrayed the divisions at VMI as between rival camps of those who “support change” and “those resisting it”…
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A More Politically Diverse Board for VMI
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin’s board-of-visitors appointments to the University of Virginia and the Virginia Community College System are bound to shake up the status quo, as Bacon’s Rebellion has documented in earlier posts today. His designation of four new members to the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors could generate controversy as…
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The VMI Alumni Association as Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy
By Larry Repress and Sal Vitale Virginia Military Institute Class of 1961 NOTE: This OPEN Letter was originally Sent to Mr. Thom Brashears, VMI Alumni Association COO with a request it be provided to all VMI Alumni in advance of the Special Meeting of the Association scheduled for 11 June 2022. On June 6, 2022…
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Peay’s Service at VMI Honored
by James A. Bacon A year and a half after he was forced into resigning amidst allegations of “relentless racism” at the institution he ran for 17 years, J.H. Binford Peay III, has been honored by the VMI Board of Visitors. The board bestowed upon him the title of superintendent emeritus and ordered that a…
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Dissident Alumni Open a New Front in the Higher-Ed Culture Wars
by James A. Bacon A Saturday meeting of the VMI Alumni Association, convened to elect a new board of directors, broke up in acrimony and confusion. In a series of votes, dissident alumni voted to remove the existing board and replace it with a hybrid slate comprised of some old board members and some new.…