Education 2024: MAJ. GEN. CEDRIC T. WINS (U.S. ARMY, RET.)

A 34-year U.S. Army veteran and 1985 VMI alumnus, Wins became the first Black superintendent to lead “the West Point of the South,” the nation’s oldest state military college, following his predecessor’s resignation. With master’s degrees from the Florida Institute of Technology and the National War College, he served as interim superintendent from November 2020 until his permanent appointment in April 2021. 

When Wins joined, VMI was the subject of a state-ordered investigation that found instances of racism against Black cadets, as well as reports of sexual assaults and harassment of women cadets. Following demands for reform from alumni and Democratic state leaders, Wins oversaw the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson and hired VMI’s first chief diversity officer, Jamica Love, who resigned in June 2023 amid backlash to Wins’ changes.

In September 2023, VMI’s board of visitors voted to accept a Confederate memorial being removed from Arlington National Cemetery and house it at a Civil War site that VMI owns.

In June, a group of VMI alumni sued the institute’s alumni association, alleging their civil rights were violated and claiming that VMI now essentially controls the alumni association.