Virginia Military Institute Board Ousts School’s First Black Superintendent

By a vote to 10 to 6 the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors has decided not to extend the contract of Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, the institute’s first Black superintendent. Wins will step down from his position on June 30 after more than four years of service to his alma mater.

In 2021, an investigation found that there was a culture of racial intolerance at the institute. Commissioned by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the report stated that racial slurs and jokes were not uncommon on campus and that the school maintained an idealized reverence for the Civil War and the Confederacy. Maj. Gen. Wins assumed his current role less than a year before the report was released and already had taken steps to address the issues later outlined by the investigative team. At the time of the investigation, roughly 6 percent of the student body and 3 percent of full-time faculty at VMI were Black.

Virginia Democratic Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy, a VMI alumna, stated recently that “hyper-partisan MAGA Republican appointees have taken over the VMI Board with their political agendas and voted to end the Superintendent’s contract by falsely labeling him as a ‘DEI hire.’”

Prior to joining the VMI administration, Maj. Gen. Wins had a stellar 34-year career in the Army. In his final command, Wins was the first Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.

During his time as a cadet at VMI, Wins was a standout basketball player who finished his basketball career as one of the top five scorers in school history. In 1985, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He later earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the National War College, and a master’s degree in management from the Florida Institute of Technology.