A bill to dissolve the governance of Virginia Military Institute and place it under the purview of Virginia State University has been rewritten to allow VMI to retain its board of visitors.
The rewritten bill, patroned by Del. Michael Feggans, D-Virginia Beach, removes references to VSU, a historically Black university in Chesterfield County, and sets parameters regarding who can serve on the VMI Board of Visitors. It was voted out of the House of Delegates Education Committee on a 12-5 vote Wednesday.
The bill states that the VMI board shall consist of 17 members, with 16 of those members appointed by the governor. The remaining 17th member would be the adjutant general to serve as a nonvoting member.
According to the bill, no more than eight of the 16 governor-appointed members of the board are allowed to be alumni of the military institute, down from 12, and at least six should be nonalumni. At least five of the board members must have United States military experience.
Feggans visited VMI on Sunday, after his bill gained widespread attention and condemnation from the federal Department of Defense.
“I appreciate the professionalism I saw on post, and the commitment to strengthening the institute,” he said while presenting his bill and its substitute before the House Education Committee. “VMI has made great strides over the past four years. Their leadership acknowledges that the troubling findings that was identified in 2021 and has committed to continued improvement. Those efforts matter and we appreciate those conversations but there is still much work to be done.”
That work includes elevating “hidden figures” who have pushed the institute to be a better place and to not continue to elevate its confederate past. He has received commitments from VMI that progress will continue at the institute, he said, and added that the General Assembly will remain engaged to make sure that VMI continues to carry out that pledge.
Lt. Gen. Dave Furness, the superintendent of VMI, stood in support of the bill during the committee meeting on Wednesday.
“We’ve made significant adjustments to it in this amendment phase and I look forward to working with the new board structure as we move ahead. My predecessor, Gen. [Cedric] Wins, made significant progress and I intend to continue that progress going forward. You have my word on that,” Furness told the committee.
Feggans’ bill is one of two in the General Assembly that suggested major changes to VMI’s governance and funding following years of scrutiny of the culture and leadership at the state-run military college in Lexington.
A bill by Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax County, would establish a task force to examine higher education at VMI. Helmer’s bill, which was also amended down, directs the task force to determine VMI’s responsiveness to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s 2021 report on the institution. It also directs the task force to explore changes to be made to distance VMI from the “Lost Cause” ideology honoring the Confederacy and to foster an inclusive environment, along with any other matter raised by the task force.
Helmer’s bill passed the House of Delegates and has been assigned to the Senate Finance and Appropriations committee.
VMI’s history of controversy
The bills follow five years of scrutiny of the culture and leadership of the public military college in Lexington. In addition, Virginia’s new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger has taken action to remake the governing board at the school after Democratic lawmakers criticized it for being too conservative under former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.