VMI To Remove General; In Step With Trump Purges

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

On Feb. 28, the board of visitors at Virginia Military Institute voted to not extend the contract of Retired Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, who assumed office as the school’s first interim Black superintendent in November 2020.

Ten of the 16 VMI board members, who voted against extending Wins’ contract which expires June 30, were appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, according to news reports. Four of the six who voted in favor of extending Wins’ contract were Democratic appointees.

Wins entered a controversial situation when he assumed office following the resignation of Ret. Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, who stepped down after 17 years on Oct. 26, 2020 following reports by the Washington Post that described an “atmosphere of hostility and cultural insensitivity” at the oldest state-supported military college in the U.S.

During Wins’ first year at the helm, a 145-page report examined racism on campus, and the statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson was removed.

Wins said in a Nov. 13, 2020 interview in the Roanoke Times shortly after he assumed office and an independent, third-party investigation directed by the state was underway, “We are going to be full and transparent with them,” he said. “I’m interested in doing my own assessment of what’s going on at the Institute and figuring out what our blind spots are or may be and then charting a path and moving forward.”

The 2021 state-sanctioned report said “racial slurs and jokes are not uncommon” and “contribute to an atmosphere of hostility toward minorities.” It also showed racial disparity existed among cadets who were dismissed by the school’s student-run honor court. Cadets of color represented 23 percent of the corps but comprised 41 percent of those dismissed since 2011.

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House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said in a statement on Feb. 28, “This decision by the VMI Board is not based on performance or character – it is purely political. Over the past week, we have witnessed a systemic purge of high-ranking military leaders, including the recent firing of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair CQ Brown [by President Donald Trump].”

“The Board’s decision is a clear signal that VMI is choosing to move in the wrong direction, caving to political pressures rather than continuing on the path of necessary reform,” Scott added.

In a Feb. 28 statement,  Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Petersburg noted Wins’ achievements during his tenure as superintendent. Wins increased state funding by 7 percent, reversed declining applications, drove major capital improvements, and boosted athletic and academic performance, she said.

Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, called the move “shameful” in a post on X on Friday afternoon. Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton and chair of the Senate Rules Committee, called it “shameless.”

Northam also weighed in.

“Our country has purged too many patriotic military leaders this week, and now Virginia has done it too,” he said in a statement. “These are dark times.”

Wins graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He holds masters’ degrees in management from the Florida Institute of Technology and in national security and strategic studies from the National War College.

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