Good afternoon to the parents, grandparents, family's friends, and especially the new cadets who will become class of 2025.

Welcome to the Virginia Military Institute and the Corps of Cadets.

Today is matriculation day at the Virginia Military Institute, or VMI, the start of school for rats,

as the freshmen are called.

You are each coming from a different background and a different set of life's experiences.

Embrace your brother rats. Get to know each other,

especially those that are different from you. Learn from each other and appreciate your fellow

cadets for who they are. The words flowing out of Superintendent General Cedric Wynn's lips

are affirming and positive. Words that would put any parent at ease

on the day they say goodbye to their now young adult offspring. This is the beginning of Hell Week,

the VMI woke version. I challenge you to engage with one another and get out of your comfort zone.

In the past, this would be the start of a week which not only resemble the physical rigor of military boot camp,

but also included running on a field, pretending to be a Confederate, killing Union soldiers, learning Confederate history,

and marching past a looming statue of General Stonewall Jackson.

We expect to matriculate 496 cadets from 42 states and six foreign countries.

Superintendent Wins has been at the helm of VMI since November 13th, 2020, when the winds of

racial change blew hard into the Institute and rattled its core.

A state-ordered independent investigation by Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and a

145-page report in 2021 called the school out on its racist and sexist culture.

Okay, all the new cadets, raise right hand and repeat after me.

Superintendent wins as a proud 1985 alum who starred on the basketball court for VMI. A black man

standing at the podium, leading and representing his school, which has been notoriously

...