When I was a rat at Virginia Military Institute, we were required to learn pertinent information about the school. One of the first things we learned was the mission of the school. When I walked across the graduation stage four years later with my diploma, I felt confident that the institute had lived up to its mission:
to produce educated, honorable men and women, prepared for the varied work of civil life, imbued with love of learning, confident in the functions and attitudes of leadership, possessing a high sense of public service, advocates of the American Democracy and free enterprise system, and ready as citizen-soldiers to defend their country in time of national peril.
Now, over two decades later, extreme partisanship has gotten in the way, putting the future of the institute in jeopardy.
The removal of DEI nationwide has trickled down to a small military college in the Shenandoah Valley. VMI Superintendent, retired Army Major General Wins, led the institute through the pandemic and led enrollment growth of over ten percent during his tenure. Additionally, during his tenure, the national ranking of the school improved from 85 to 64. Unfortunately, performance didn’t matter, as the board chose not to renew his contract. From needing him to improve race relations and guide the school during the pandemic to discarding his services and viewing him as a “diverse hire,” the board and the Youngkin administration clearly didn’t value his employment based on performance.
Now, on the flip side, the Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly may withhold funding from the school. With the potential of declining enrollment and no funding support from the state, VMI may face a hard reality in the future. Without a huge endowment, VMI relies on state support and increased enrollment for tuition revenue. With declining enrollment and no state support, VMI may be forced to close its doors in less than a decade. VMI tried becoming private in 1997 to stop women from attending but was, thankfully, unsuccessful. Women cadets made the school better. Privatizing may be an option, but it is not a reasonable one.
Throughout all of this, the students and community suffer the most. We owe it to the next generation of students to eliminate partisan politics with the administration of the institute. We need VMI as a feeder into our military; we need VMI to continue to provide opportunities for the students for these next generations, and we need to get better. If we want VMI to continue being VMI, we need some kind of compromise. We need logical reasoning. The institute was headed in the right direction under the leadership of Superintendent Wins. What do we want the institute to be moving forward, or has it come to the end of its life cycle?
If the worst happens, I would implore the leadership at Washington & Lee University, VMI’s neighbor, to try to take on as many of VMI‘s property assets, such as the library and the academic facilities, as possible. They could expand, and VMI could become Washington & Lee’s north campus. Or VMI could potentially become a satellite campus for Mary Baldwin University or Virginia Tech, both schools with dedicated Corps of Cadets. Or the school could be taken over by the military and used as a military training ground, similar to the Army War College.
During freshman field training exercises at VMI, we had to read a map and successfully navigate through the woods of the Shenandoah Valley for three days to a designated checkpoint. Our group was temporarily sidetracked. We had two decisions to make: we could walk to the road, give up, and get shuttled back to school, or we could continue to try our way. We continued, and we were fortunate to get back on track to make it to the checkpoint. The political decision makers at this similar crossroads need to decide in the best interest of the students if it wants to continue to be VMI, or if it wants to be something else.
Jeff Bennett is a native of Danville. Besides freelance writing, Benett works as a business consultant for transportation and emerging technology companies. Bennett resides in Alexandria and holds an undergraduate degree in English from the Virginia Military Institute.