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Amid calls to defund VMI, superintendent calls alleged attacks on female cadets 'unacceptable'
Local
Amid calls to defund VMI, superintendent calls alleged attacks on female cadets ‘unacceptable’
By Ian Shapira
July 13, 2021|Updated today at 6:35 p.m. EDT
The new superintendent of Virginia Military Institute issued a withering warning to the school’s 1,700 students Monday night, condemning online attacks and sexual assaults against female cadets chronicled by The Washington Post earlier that day.
“The allegations contained within the story are unacceptable of any VMI cadet and no one — VMI cadet, faculty, staff, nor civilian — should be subjected to the type of behavior detailed in the article,” retired Army Maj. General Cedric Wins wrote in an email to the student body. “The fact that this type of behavior is reported to have come from individuals who have worn the VMI uniform is repugnant.”
[Derision, misogyny, sexual assault: VMI women face attacks on campus and online]
More than a dozen women at VMI described an atmosphere of hostility at the nation’s oldest state-supported military college and an expectation of backlash from male cadets if they reported being groped or raped. Five of the women were sexually assaulted at VMI. And female cadets are targets of constant ridicule on an anonymous, widely used social media app called Jodel, where they are derided as “shedets” or “sheeds.” Male students unleashed a torrent of abuse aimed at Kasey Meredith after the school announced in the spring that she would be the first woman to lead the Corps of Cadets in VMI’s 182-year-old history.
The Post’s article led to outrage online and consternation within VMI’s alumni community. On Twitter, the hashtag #DefundVMI circulated. The school received about $21.6 million in state funding for fiscal 2022 — a 12 percent increase from the previous year — which follows a recent allotment of $33 million toward a new aquatics center.
{snip}
By Ian Shapira
Ian Shapira is a features writer on the local enterprise team. Twitter https://twitter.com/ianshapira
Amid calls to defund VMI, superintendent calls alleged attacks on female cadets ‘unacceptable’
By Ian Shapira
July 13, 2021|Updated today at 6:35 p.m. EDT
The new superintendent of Virginia Military Institute issued a withering warning to the school’s 1,700 students Monday night, condemning online attacks and sexual assaults against female cadets chronicled by The Washington Post earlier that day.
“The allegations contained within the story are unacceptable of any VMI cadet and no one — VMI cadet, faculty, staff, nor civilian — should be subjected to the type of behavior detailed in the article,” retired Army Maj. General Cedric Wins wrote in an email to the student body. “The fact that this type of behavior is reported to have come from individuals who have worn the VMI uniform is repugnant.”
[Derision, misogyny, sexual assault: VMI women face attacks on campus and online]
More than a dozen women at VMI described an atmosphere of hostility at the nation’s oldest state-supported military college and an expectation of backlash from male cadets if they reported being groped or raped. Five of the women were sexually assaulted at VMI. And female cadets are targets of constant ridicule on an anonymous, widely used social media app called Jodel, where they are derided as “shedets” or “sheeds.” Male students unleashed a torrent of abuse aimed at Kasey Meredith after the school announced in the spring that she would be the first woman to lead the Corps of Cadets in VMI’s 182-year-old history.
The Post’s article led to outrage online and consternation within VMI’s alumni community. On Twitter, the hashtag #DefundVMI circulated. The school received about $21.6 million in state funding for fiscal 2022 — a 12 percent increase from the previous year — which follows a recent allotment of $33 million toward a new aquatics center.
{snip}
By Ian Shapira
Ian Shapira is a features writer on the local enterprise team. Twitter https://twitter.com/ianshapira