The Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors voted unanimously Thursday to appoint retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins as the school’s superintendent.
Mr. Wins is the first Black person to hold the position in 182 years. He graduated from VMI in 1985, and has been serving as the interim superintendent since November.
“If someone had told me a year ago that today I’d be the superintendent of my alma mater, I would have told them they were crazy,” Mr. Wins said in a press release. “However, the interactions that I’ve had over the past six months with [the institute’s] outstanding cadets and dedicated faculty have been some of the most rewarding interactions of my career.
The appointment of Mr. Wins comes as the nation’s oldest state-supported military college is under investigation for cadet allegations of racism on campus.
VMI admitted its first Black cadets in 1968, the last public college in the Old Dominion to racially integrate.