Lawmakers Retreat From VMI Oversight Transfer, Advance Board Overhaul

The House Education Committee on Wednesday scrapped a proposal to place the Virginia Military Institute under Virginia State University’s control and instead advanced a narrower plan to reshape VMI’s governing board — a significant shift from the bill’s original approach.

The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. The House Education Committee on Wednesday advanced a revised bill reshaping the institute’s Board of Visitors while dropping a proposal that would have transferred oversight to Virginia State University. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)

Instead, the committee approved a substitute for House Bill 1374 that removes all references to VSU and focuses instead on the composition of VMI’s Board of Visitors. Five Republicans opposed the proposal.

As originally introduced last month by Del. Michael Feggans, D-Virginia Beach, the measure would have dissolved the VMI Board of Visitors and transferred oversight to the Board of Visitors at VSU.

Feggans previously described that proposal as a structural — not punitive — response to governance concerns that have followed the Lexington military college in recent years.

The substitute, which Feggans said he offered after returning from a visit to VMI on Sunday, abandons that consolidation and instead keeps the institute independent while tightening statutory requirements for who may serve on its board.

Still, Feggans began by defending VSU’s credentials, even as the new version strips it of any formal role.

“Virginia State University is a strong public institution demonstrating governance capacity and academic credibility,” Feggans said.

Feggans said his weekend visit to VMI influenced his decision to offer the substitute.

“I want to thank the superintendent, faculty, staff, and cadets for engaging in an open and candid dialogue over the past several weeks, and especially this past weekend,” he said. “I appreciate the professionalism I saw on post and a commitment to strengthening the institute.”

He said time spent with cadets reminded him of his own background as a military training instructor at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, where he taught medical field training.

“There is something unique about the military training environment, the discipline, the preparedness, and the pride that you see, and young men and women preparing to serve,” Feggans said.

“I saw that same energy at VMI, and I enjoyed seeing the focus and the purpose on their faces. It reinforced how important these environments are to our leadership development.”

The revised bill keeps the board at 17 members — 16 appointed by the governor and the adjutant general serving as a nonvoting ex officio member — but reduces the maximum number of alumni from 12 to eight and increases the minimum number of nonalumni members from four to six.

It also requires that at least six members have senior U.S. military experience, defined as service at or above E-7 for enlisted personnel or O-5 for commissioned officers, with honorable separation or retirement.

“This ensures meaningful military representation, while maintaining balanced civilian oversight,” Feggans said of his proposal. “It’s about balance, alignment, ensuring that the governing support, that the governance supports contain the progress.”

The changes would apply to appointments made on or after July 1, 2026. Current board members could not be removed solely to bring the board into compliance.

VMI Superintendent Lt. Gen. David Furness told the committee he supports the revised measure and thanked Feggans for visiting his campus on Sunday.

“I thought the visit went very well,” Furness said. “We enjoyed having you on post, and I offer the same to each and every one of you. You’re always welcome to come to Lexington, kick the tires, and see what your hard-earned tax dollars are actually doing in Lexington.”

Furness emphasized that “significant adjustments” were made to the proposal in the amendment phase, and that he looked forward to “working with a new board structure as we move ahead.”

Furness credited his predecessor, former superintendent Ret. Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, with the initiative of reforms, pledged to continue that work.

Feggans told lawmakers that progress at VMI has been real but incomplete after years of turbulence at VMI, including a 2021 state-ordered review that found widespread concerns about racial and gender inequities at the institute.

The report prompted leadership changes and a series of reforms aimed at improving campus culture and oversight.

Tensions resurfaced last year when the Board of Visitors ousted Wins, VMI’s first Black superintendent, a move that drew sharp criticism from some lawmakers and renewed scrutiny of the board’s governance and political divisions.

“There is still much work to be done,” Feggans said Wednesday. “Particularly in terms of how the institute memorializes, shepherds, and elevates the hidden figures who are not named in VMI’s history.”

He framed the substitute as a governance adjustment designed to reinforce, not derail, that trajectory.

“A sustained improvement requires structural stability,” Feggans said. “Adjusting the board composition now ensures that the institute can continue to build on its strength, honor its mission, and continue to move forward and flourish in the years ahead.”

HB 1374 is now headed to the full House of Delegates for a vote.

by Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury

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