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Politics|The First Black Leader of Virginia Military Institute Is Ousted
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/virginia-military-institute-cedric-wins.html
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The college’s board decided not to renew the contract of its superintendent, Major General Cedric T. Wins, who led diversity efforts and removed a Confederate statue on campus.
Feb. 28, 2025Updated 2:54 p.m. ET
The board of Virginia Military Institute voted on Friday against extending the contract of Major General Cedric T. Wins, the college’s first Black superintendent.
The school’s board of visitors, which voted 10-6 not to extend General Wins’s contract, did not give an official reason for the decision, which was made after a closed session that lasted more than two hours.
The move followed years of pushback from conservative alumni of the college who had objected to what they called General Wins’s “woke” efforts to increase campus diversity. And it followed accusations from a Virginia state senator that the effort to remove him was racially motivated.
The school is the oldest state-supported military college in the country, and all students participate in reserve officers training, a pathway to leadership roles in the U.S. military. General Wins, a V.M.I. alumnus, was appointed to the job in 2021, although he began on an interim basis the previous year. He was responsible for removing the statue of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a Confederate general, that had been prominently positioned on campus.
He also led efforts to increase diversity on campus following reports of “relentless racism” experienced by Black cadets published by The Washington Post in 2020, shortly before he took over. A subsequent state investigation concluded that there was a racist and sexist culture at V.M.I.
When the statue was removed, General Wins acknowledged Jackson’s ties to the school, where he was an instructor, and the strong opinions about the decision. General Wins said in a statement at the time, “Though change can sometimes be difficult, it is time for our beloved Institution to move forward.”
