Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The Rats Return

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

VMI Rats

by James A. Bacon

Good news from the Virginia Military Institute! After seeing a drastic falloff t0 374 entering students last year, 491 students matriculated this fall. Last year’s decline capped off years of disastrous public relations stemming from a campaign by The Washington Post and the Northam administration to depict VMI as a racist, sexist institution. The Post has since redirected its venom to conservative VMI alumni, taking the heat off the institution, and Northam is history.

Last year, according to VMI officials, the administration ramped up its recruitment efforts, focusing on geographic areas with larger populations of military families and low-income or minority students. About 85.5% of this year’s cadets are men, and 14.5% are women. Interestingly, VMI did not provide a breakdown by race/ethnicity, even though achieving racial diversity has been a top priority.

Meanwhile, controversy continues to roil the military school. As Bacon’s Rebellion noted two weeks ago, Board of Visitors Chairman Thomas R. Watjen had asked VMI’s University Counsel, who reports to Attorney General Jason Miyares, to investigate allegations that VMI officials had sought negative press about The Cadet, the independent student newspaper that has been a thorn in the side of Superintendent Cedric Wins and his administration. But now, reports Cardinal News, Watjen says VMI “will handle the matter internally.”
Wrote Watjens in an update to his original statement: “After further consideration, we have chosen to handle this matter in the normal course of business, and I am discussing with [Superintendent] Maj. Gen. Wins his plans for doing so.”

VMI spokesperson Bill Wyatt told Cardinal News that “a number of factors led to the decision to handle the matter internally,” but he provided no details.

The Cadet Foundation, which is funded by independent alumni to support the student newspaper, is calling in a petition for an “open, transparent, impartial, and equitable review/investigation” into what it calls a deliberate effort to shut down the student newspaper, which had been given a top public-service award by the Virginia Press Association.

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14 responses to “The Rats Return”

  1. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    Perhaps the improved admission statistic rate is the result of the WaPo and Northam efforts, which have brought about changes (including Genl Wins himself) that a new generation of matriculants (and many of their parents) seek, and expect, from the Institute.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Or not. Could have drawn the spawn with the other expectations.

  2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Well! After all the gloom and doom over the past year on his blog, VMI’s entering class is back in the ranges of previous years. You did not waste any words congratulating the Institute or Supt. Wins on this achievement, however.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Well, is it a “Wins wins one”, or has the attention drawn a different caliber of rat?

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      funny thing about that… 😉

  3. Jake Spivey Avatar
    Jake Spivey

    Rat class back to normal. Most likely the result of having a full-time Admissions director. (Remember Supt. Wins fired the director and last year’s matriculating class was the smallest in a long time.) What should not be overlooked is the rejection by the AG to have his Ass’t. AG conduct an investigation into the administration’s attacks on The Cadet’s cadet writers and alumni supporters. Instead, the BoV is going to allow the administration to investigate itself. One can already hear the administration’s definitive claim come September, “we didn’t find anything.” Of note, the Supt. stated “he 100 percent supports a cadet-run newspaper.” His purported concern at the beginning (May 2021) was “there was a lot of alumni influence.” The VMI Alumni Agencies are composed of four organizations with the purpose of raising funds and performing other activities on behalf of VMI alumni and other donors. Each of the governing Boards and a preponderance of the organizations’ staff are VMI alumni. In other words, there is lot of alumni influence running these organizations. So, why is a student newspaper with very little alumni influence bad, but an alumni organization with a huge alumni presence alright?

  4. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Is that a stock photo or is it of this years “Rats”?

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      File photo.

      1. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        Thanks.

      2. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        Thanks.

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    just want to point out that WaPo and Ian reported this also:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3315bb8bf8645a85eeb36598ed3230a3132d4e3ec4200fc5c35ab4de07711ff1.jpg

  6. SmallTowner Avatar
    SmallTowner

    Congrats to the admissions team for their refreshed approach to recruiting. I’ve read elsewhere that the average GPA for incoming Rats is 3.6. So congratulations to the Rats as well for choosing a much harder college path than their peers.

  7. Carmen Villani Jr Avatar
    Carmen Villani Jr

    Thanks Jim for posting this article. While the number of matriculants has increased, the question that must be asked – have standards been lowered to get to that higher number? As Paul Harvey would say: “Now, the rest of the story.” Let’s consider the following according to VMI provided data:
    “Semester GPA” for the Class of 2024 in their first semester in 2020 – 2.742; Class of 2025 in their first semester in 2021 – 2.596; Class of 2026 in their first semester in 2022 – 2.561. The 2.561 GPA is the lowest it has been since the Class of 2021.
    “Cumulative GPA” (data presented in April 2023) – All classes (2024-2027) had about 20% of those appointed with a 3.50; the class with the largest percentage of students with a less than 3.5 is the Class of 2027 (37%); the class with the lowest percentage of students with a greater than 3.5 is the Class of 2027 (43%)
    During a public meeting earlier this year, the head of the Physics Department expressed concern that the current enrollment policies are creating a “huge vulnerability to our academic excellence.” A member of the History Department referred to a survey that revealed the department is having “more challenges getting them (Rats) up to speed in basic notetaking and reading comprehension skills.”

    In reviewing a June “Weekly Admissions Report,” “inquiries” have seen a dramatic drop. From a high of nearly 18,500 with the Class of 2024 to about 13,500 with the Class of 2027. It should also be noted that the trend is reversing.

    VMI needs to pick a lane and stay in it. Will it be acceptance rate based upon total applications or completed applications? In a Washington Post article in May, Director of Communications and Marketing, Col. Bill Wyatt, commented that the acceptance rate (completed applications vs appointments) was at 98%. Using the data point of completed applications, the previous year was around 96%. Isn’t the message – just complete the application process and you will be accepted? https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/15/vmi-enrollment-youngkin-racism-dei/

    In another article just a couple days ago, the data point is now total applications, which yields an acceptance rate of about 81%, which is still much higher than what historical data reveals. Another key point made in the article was the mention of 222 applications being turned down. That is in stark contrast given in the June report which states that there were a mere 12 that were turned down. I reached out to Col. Wyatt yesterday morning to verify the accuracy of the data reported in the article and still awaiting a response.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/20/vmi-freshman-enrollment-rats/

    The VMI education consists not only of academics. There is a military and athletic element to it as well. It stands to reason that by devoting so much attention to the academic element, the other two will be negatively impacted. By the way, the petition to protect free speech at VMI is closing in on 1,900 supporters. Go to this link to learn more.
    https://www.change.org/p/stop-suppression-of-free-speech-and-viewpoint-diversity-at-virginia-military-institute?redirect=false

    1. SmallTowner Avatar
      SmallTowner

      I have spoken with college professors from many schools and they all say the same thing – incoming students are less prepared than they used to be in the past few years. A lot of it can be chalked up to learning loss in high school due to COVID remote learning.

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