House committee passes amended VMI bill, strips language transferring governance to VSU

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Changes could be coming to the Board of Visitors at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), but those changes might not be as drastic as they once seemed. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, a House committee approved changes to a bill that would have originally transferred governance of VMI to Virginia State University. 

The new version of the bill scrapped the language that would have put VSU in charge of VMI, and instead would make changes to the makeup of the VMI Board of Visitors. 

Currently, 12 alumni are required to sit on the 16-member appointed VMI Board of Visitors. However, the new version of the bill, approved by the House Education Committee, sets a maximum of eight alumni on the board at any one time. Plus, five members of the board must have senior military experience. 

“They’ve made a lot of great changes, but there’s still a lot of work that can be done,” Delegate Michael Feggans (D-Virginia Beach), who wrote the bill, told 8News.

Feggans said the goal of the bill is to make sure VMI continues to advance after a 2021 report found a “racist and sexist” culture at VMI.

Plus, Feggans takes issue with the Board of Visitors' decision not to renew the contract of Major General Cedric Wins, VMI’s first black superintendent, in 2025.

“There’s so many other places that VMI can continue to improve to show the Commonwealth that it has really moved past the ghosts of the Confederacy,” Feggans said.

VMI’s current superintendent, Lieutenant General David Furness, said that with the changes, the school supports the bill. 

“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,” Furness told the House Education Committee.

However, VMI’s support didn’t stop several Republicans from voting against the measure. One of them was Delegate Anne Ferrell Tata (R-Virginia Beach). Tata didn’t agree to speak on camera, but said she opposed both versions of the bill and questioned why they were necessary in the first place. 

Meanwhile, the House of Delegates has already passed a bill to create a task force to study how VMI has responded to that 2021 report, and how VMI can create a more inclusive environment.