WaPo: “The Virginia Military Institute has started to turn the corner on a record of hostility toward women and cadets of color that brought dishonor on the institution and its chief benefactor, the state of Virginia. Whether it continues that uphill climb depends partly on the state’s governor-elect, Glenn Youngkin (R).
A year ago, VMI’s new superintendent, retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, then serving in an acting capacity, pledged reforms “with swift implementation” to correct what he called “blind spots” in the school’s commitment to standards of integrity, honor, respect, civility and discipline.
Mr. Wins, a VMI graduate and the first African American named to lead the nation’s oldest state-supported military college, made that vow in the aftermath of reporting by The Post’s Ian Shapira detailing an on-campus culture of barely concealed animus toward women and cadets of color. Those attitudes were on lurid display in regular racist, sexist and misogynist postings on Jodel, an anonymous social media app widely used at the college. Disparate treatment and discrimination had become accepted norms on the Shenandoah Valley campus.
To his credit, Mr. Wins has been proactive in addressing the problems laid out in an independent report last spring, commissioned by Gov. Ralph Northam (D), himself a 1981 VMI graduate, and other top state officials following the articles in The Post. The report concluded VMI needed robust reforms to address an “overall racist and sexist culture.””