For whatever it’s worth, throwing my few cents in since I lived in barracks recently. The reality is, the picture being painted by the articles is not an accurate characterization of the Corps. Could Smith Hall (Supe’s office is in there) change this or that and get better results? Maybe, I don’t know, Cadets aren’t in Smith Hall and Smith Hall doesn’t define day to day life in the Corps. These articles are cherry-picking the worst things they can find, in terms of incidents going back years, as well as jodel content (Im on the app and many of the quotes were downvoted and removed by cadets with the posters being “colorfully” insulted, yet they were used to represent the average Cadet). Incidents as described in the article are just not common place. I wish they never happened of course, but that’s not realistic. Now we’re not perfect: Are there some kids who come in having learned the lost cause narrative that fit the stereotype? Yupp, they’re there, and are likely the ones responsible for the incidents reported. Are they a majority? Definitely not. Almost half the Corps isn’t even from Virginia anymore....we’ve got more diversity of opinions than in VMI’s past. The issue of athletes vs non-athletes is a real thing and has also made things look much worse, but that’s a whole different discussion and is certainly something that can/should be remedied. A new Supe will have more success than GEN Peay on that front, I expect. I’ll close with this, despite what the media’s motives may be, most of the black cadets who’ve spoken out about stonewall and otherwise have been motivated by the fact that they love VMI, but want it to be better. If it was as horrible as it sounds right now, how could anyone love VMI in the first place? I’m open to posts/DMs from people considering VMI....it was the best decision of my life...
