Virginia Military Institute ousts superintendent following Accuracy in Media campaign

March 3, 2025

By Accuracy In Media

The Virginia Military Institute has announced it will not renew the contract of Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, a decision Accuracy in Media is calling a victory in its campaign against DEI and radical ideologies at the institution.

For months, Accuracy in Media has actively pushed back against VMI’s increasing embrace of progressive policies, launching a series of public awareness efforts to expose what it described as a shift away from the school’s traditional values. The campaign intensified after AIM uncovered that VMI had hired Philip Crane, a visiting professor with ties to an antisemitic student organization at Columbia University.

Crane played a key role in a group that signed a proclamation blaming Israel for the October 7 attacks, a stance so extreme that many student leaders later withdrew their support. Crane, however, did not.

To bring attention to the issue, Accuracy in Media deployed mobile billboards to VMI’s campus and launched a website, SaveVMI.com, allowing concerned students, faculty, and alumni to directly email the school’s Board of Visitors. More than 34,000 emails were sent, urging leadership to take action.

“AIM traveled to VMI’s campus several times and I directly confronted their Board because students, faculty, and donors deserve to know that an antisemite was hired to serve in a teaching role at the university,” said Accuracy in Media President Adam Guillette. “VMI is a prestigious military academy tasked with molding the minds of our future leaders. It is reprehensible that Maj. Gen. Wins would allow someone like Philip Crane to be hired in the first place. We are encouraged to see the Board make this decision.”

VMI’s student newspaper, The Cadet, covered AIM’s efforts, further amplifying the campaign’s message.

While Wins’s departure marks a shift in leadership, Accuracy in Media will continue to hold universities accountable for radical hiring decisions and ideological policies that compromise the integrity of academic institutions.