Two Democrats in the commonwealth’s House of Delegates have taken aim at the Virginia Military Institute.
The bills follow five years of scrutiny of the culture and leadership of the public military college in Lexington. In addition, Virginia’s new governor has taken action to remake the governing board at the school after Democratic lawmakers have criticized it for being too conservative under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax County, filed a bill Wednesday that would create a task force to determine whether VMI should continue to be a state-sponsored higher education institution. A bill filed Tuesday by Del. Michael Feggans, D-Virginia Beach, would dissolve VMI’s board of visitors and put the governance of the college under Virginia State University’s board of visitors.
“We are reviewing all recently filed bills, including Del. Helmer’s, and plan to work with our elected officials to demonstrate VMI’s progress and value to the Commonwealth of Virginia,” VMI spokesperson Sherry Wallace said by email Wednesday. “For more than 186 years, VMI has had an unparallelled record of service to the commonwealth and our nation. The citizen-soldiers the institute produces are the epitome of value, and we plan to continue that mission.”
Sen. Chris Head, R-Botetourt County, whose district includes VMI, said Wednesday that the bills are disappointing but “not surprising.” Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt County, whose district also includes VMI, declined to comment.
Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke and chair of the House Education Committee, said that he wants to “help VMI produce high-quality graduates for Virginia,” when asked if he supports the legislation.
VMI has about 1,500 students, who are known as “rats” in their first year of college and “cadets” for the rest of their time at VMI.
What do the bills say?
Feggans’ bill, HB 1374, aims to dissolve VMI’s board of visitors and transfer the governance of the institution to the Virginia State University Board of Visitors. VSU, a historically black university, is in Chesterfield County.
In a statement Wednesday, Feggans said that the legislative effort is intended to be “structural, not punitive.”
“The bill reflects broader, longstanding concerns about whether VMI’s current governance structure meets the standards the commonwealth expects. When patterns of governance issues arise, it is appropriate for the General Assembly to review and, if necessary, adjust oversight structures,” Feggans said.
“This legislation is about governance and the General Assembly’s responsibility to ensure that public institutions are overseen in a manner that reflects stability, accountability, and sound judgment,” he said.
He added that the potential shift in governance would preserve “VMI’s mission, military structure, and academic role.”
Helmer’s bill, HB 1377, would establish a task force to determine whether VMI should remain a state-sponsored institution.
In an interview Wednesday, Helmer said the task force’s charge would be twofold: to evaluate the quality of education received by cadets and to determine whether the institution is able to move past its history and “embrace an inclusive view of Virginia.”
Helmer said 40% of VMI’s funding comes from the state.
The operating budget posted on VMI’s website shows state funding accounting for just under 30% of the college’s $121.8 million anticipated revenue for fiscal 2026.
Funding from the institute’s Alumni Agencies for fiscal 2026 was reported to be nearly $36 million — about a million more than the school received from the state.
Helmer’s bill would instruct the task force to revisit a 1928 report ordered by the General Assembly on the state of higher education in Virginia. The report recommended that VMI be closed, claiming its education services were being duplicated at other schools. “Aside from the military features of its program, there is no educational service being rendered at Virginia Military Institute which is not already duplicated or can be more advantageously and less expensively duplicated at the other taxpayer-supported institutions,” the report said.
Helmer, a West Point graduate, served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Feggans served in the Air Force and was deployed overseas to support U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. He retired after 20 years.
Superintendent Wins’ ouster prompted the legislative push
The legislative moves are the latest development in a fight that began between Virginia Senate Democrats and then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin early last year. They’re also a continuation of the tension that’s been brewing at the institute ever since former Gov. Ralph Northam ordered an investigation of the school in fall 2020. That investigation and the replacement of VMI’s superintendent led to a push by some alumni for Youngkin to rein in what they saw as the school’s “woke” culture adjustments.
Youngkin nominated several appointees to the VMI board of visitors in 2025, with some beginning service on the board only to have those appointments later denied by the state Senate. Typically, the General Assembly must confirm a governor’s appointees to an institution’s board.
George Mason University and the University of Virginia also dealt with back and forth over board appointments last year, which took place as the Trump administration put pressure on those two schools and several others in Virginia to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
In Lexington, VMI has been under fire from some General Assembly Democrats since its board voted in February 2025 not to renew the contract of Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, the first black superintendent of VMI. The board has not explained why Wins was removed, indicating only that performance and “institutional needs” were considered.
Some state senators responded with comments about wanting to reduce or eliminate VMI’s state funding. Helmer was one of several Democratic lawmakers then who posted on social media saying that the commonwealth’s investment in VMI should be reconsidered.
Helmer declined Wednesday to characterize the conversations he has had with representatives of VMI but said that Democratic members in both chambers of the General Assembly publicly stated at the time that there may be consequences for Wins’ removal.
Wins was named superintendent in 2020, after Washington Post reports of widespread racism and sexism led to the state investigation of the school’s traditions, the resignation of VMI’s longtime superintendent and the relocation of Civil War monuments from campus.
VMI is the oldest state-supported senior military college in the U.S. Some of its traditions and practices are rooted in Civil War history; until Wins’ tenure, first-year students reenacted the battle at New Market, where more than 250 VMI cadets fought for the Confederacy.
“We know that VMI has been a bastion of Lost Cause ideology, celebrating treason against the United States,” Helmer said Wednesday. “It has celebrated that history for over a century.”
The controversy in recent years has not been the institute’s first. In 1997, VMI was the last military school in the nation to admit women. In 1968, VMI was the last public college in Virginia to desegregate. It did so only when its federal funding was threatened for not complying with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Helmer pointed to VMI’s resistance in allowing women into the institute and its continued reported trouble with racism and sexism. With that history in mind, he said, his bill is a direct response to the board of visitors’ dismissal of Wins.
“The board’s decision to do that indicated that they were trying to turn back the clock, and that the institution seemed to be uninterested in embracing a pluralistic vision of service that moved forward rather than relying on the Lost Cause ideology of celebrating the Confederacy,” he said.
Spanberger board appointees include Northam, former board members
Wins faced vehement opposition from some alumni during his four years as superintendent. As members who had been added to the board by Northam were replaced by Youngkin appointees, the board appeared to lean more conservative and was at times critical of Wins’ progress in reviving enrollment after a substantial decline that took place amid the state investigation and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced new board appointments for VMI to fill vacancies on Saturday, the day she was inaugurated. Her office did not respond to a request for comment on either piece of legislation Wednesday.
Two of Spanberger’s nominees, alumni Lester Johnson and Damon Williams, had previously served on the board. Johnson told Cardinal News last spring he had “kind of stepped away” from VMI after his appointment to the board wasn’t renewed in 2024, and said he thought that Youngkin’s board of visitors had “put the school in a bad situation” with its alumni base, particularly with Black alumni.
Northam, a VMI graduate, was also named to the board. Northam has been villainized by some VMI supporters for ordering the investigation of its culture in 2020. Northam also came under fire in 2019 when a medical school yearbook photo was circulated showing him dressed in blackface at a party.
In addition, Attorney General Jay Jones dismissed senior assistant attorney general Patrick O’Leary from his role as general counsel to VMI. As a state institution, the attorney general’s office represents the institute in legal matters.
“Given all these other challenges we’re having, I think it is worth making sure that the quality of the education itself is a good value for taxpayer money,” Helmer said, and pointed out alternatives to VMI. Those alternatives include expanding the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech, he said, or increasing the size of ROTC programs elsewhere.
VMI’s board of visitors named Ret. Lt. Gen. David Furness as superintendent in August. At a Senate finance committee meeting in December, said the institute would remain “nonpartisan, steady, balanced and leading along the center line” under his leadership.