A Response to the Chief of Staff and the VMI Administration

Editor's note: This editorial is in response to an email sent out by The Office of the Chief of Staff, Virginia Military Institute (VMI) to the VMI Corps of Cadets, faculty, staff and others unknown to us on February 3, 2022. This official email, on behalf of VMI and its Superintendent, contained false and misleading information that we address herein. Where is your honor? How far will you go on your crusade to denigrate the hard work, ingenuity, and pride shown by the cadets that write this paper? We ask these questions because we have faced nothing but admonition from you since we began to publish. Our negotiations, at present, include a meeting with VMI's lawyer (appointed by the Virginia Attorney General's Office) and four separate conferences with the Commandant; in all these sessions our goal was to find a solution that catered toward VMI's needs and preserve the independence of The Cadet. The relaunch of the original Cadet began when members of the Class of 2021 wanted to publish an issue for their graduation; those first-class cadets utilized the prior experience and connections of alumni to publish their graduation issue as has been common practice throughout The Cadet's history. In this process these first-class cadets reached out to the Corps to gauge interest in a cadet-run newspaper. Those that responded make up the editorial core of the paper today. Since then, we have endeavored to make The Cadet a regular publication that is free, thanks to donations from alumni, parents, and friends of The Cadet, for the entire Corps of Cadets, and caters to the wider VMI community. After the 2021 graduation issue, in July, members of The Cadet staff met with the new Commandant after being told there would be no newspaper without his personal approval. Instructions were given to submit a charter and a permit. It was said that they would be expeditiously approved without The Cadet needing to become a club. Although the Commandant expressed verbal approval, both were denied. We asked for the reasons why and none were given. Soon after, we arranged for free copies of The Cadet prior to the Matriculation Fair for parents and rats, available at the Chamber of Commerce table. You contacted the Chamber to stop distribution telling them we were not "sanctioned" by VMI. The Cadet Foundation joined the chamber so papers could be distributed. A member of the Commandant's staff removed and hid the papers. After we contacted you, they were returned, but only after much of the fair was over. No disciplinary action (that we are aware of) was taken against the staff for this flagrant First Amendment Violation. We met with your attorney and repeatedly confirmed to him that we, as cadets, were running the paper and had complete editorial control. All agreed we would meet with the Commandant to assure him of that and move forward with the permit to restore The Cadet's traditional privileges. Your attorney agreed all alleged trademark and related issues would be resolved by making the font for our existing disclaimer larger and posting part of it at the top of our masthead. We did so in our next issue. In good faith we then had three meetings with the Commandant, and we were assured that we would not be required to be a club. After these meetings, we were asked to submit a permit that would restore The Cadet's traditional privileges. The ability to continue our work with reasonable accommodation and a working relationship with VMI seemed within reach. A meeting was then set on January 31, 2022 between us, the Chief of Staff, the Superintendent's Executive Officer, the Communications Officer, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the VMI Alumni Association. It signaled to us that we might be taken seriously, and the permit would be approved as the Commandant promised. However, this meeting was canceled by the Chief of Staff's Office on short notice. When we inquired about the prompt cancellation to see if there was a miscommunication and possibly reschedule, we were told that no meeting was necessary – not even a day after this exchange, the entirety of VMI received an email in which you denounced us, questioned our honor, and cast aspersions on how we manage funds from donations, subscriptions, and other support. You bashfully asserted that you supported our First Amendment rights to shield yourselves from legal scrutiny while continuing a deliberate campaign attempting to discredit us, denying us basic privileges, and spreading false information about us and The Cadet to include, but not limited to, firmly asserting that we had no affiliation with VMI and that our views were not reflective of the Corps of Cadets. In doing so, you have failed to reasonably accommodate our ability to exercise our First Amendment rights. You have made it very clear that we are not sanctioned, however, the latter point that we are falsely representing ourselves as the restart of The Cadet and in no way represent the Corps of Cadets crossed the line. In our negotiations with your representatives, we have been nothing but cordial and offered a constant stream of solutions. For example, we offered the Commandant a non-voting seat on the Board of Directors for the Cadet Foundation we formed just as the Superintendent has on the VMI Alumni Agency Boards – the offer was refused. The Commandant told us we would not be required to be a club and that a permit to grant us the privileges The Cadet staff historically had operating our independent newspaper would be granted. We continue to await fulfillment of that promise. It is obvious. You would rather exercise control over The Cadet than let it be an independent body, as is the arrangement with nearly every other university paper in the nation! The Student Press Law Center and other experts repeatedly told you our structure is both a best practice and an example for others, but you continue to ignore that fact. We will say it again, as we have said many times before: We are run, administered, written, and edited by cadets. What more can we do to prove this to you? Our paper has constantly, and publicly, been accused of being a mouthpiece for alumni that disagree with the present administration. This is a blatant falsehood; your contention with our organization is that we have an alumnus you dislike as our advisor. Recently you falsely told The Washington Post that The Cadet is really being run by a single alumnus although you knew this not to be true. It was only because The Post reporter called us directly to clarify your statement that this falsehood did not end up in the national media to disparage both that alumnus and us. You have allowed your personal grievances with one alumnus to poison your interactions with us. By telling prominent members of the VMI community and all who will listen that we are only a puppet for outside forces which are hostile toward the Institute, you deprive us of our agency and downplay our capabilities. In your estimation we are just too simple to comprehend that we are being manipulated; it is an impossibility that a cadet could have any critical insights on the nature of their own experiences at VMI. Instead, we must be told what to think and what to do because there is no other explanation for our dissent. Perhaps you are just projecting your own intentions for the future of the Corps of Cadets onto us and the rest of VMI. It is insulting. Infantilizing us has blinded you toward the possibilities that an independent newspaper can offer VMI. Your words consistently ring hollow, and one would think that you would have more faith in the product which you so vehemently defend in the national press. Come to your senses – your recent disavowal of us and attempts to create an administration-controlled newspaper as a "club" under the Commandant's Office and Alumni Association shows that fear has gotten the better of you. Unlike your false statements and accusations, we have evidence to substantiate each of ours and are prepared to produce them, be it in the court of public opinion or a court of law. If you really believe in the First Amendment and support the VMI ethos and VMI itself, you will: 1. Issue an apology and retractions of the false and misleading statements in your email.2. Allow us to send our statement to all cadets, alumni, faculty, staff, journalists, and others the original email was sent to.3. Cease your attempts to start an administration supervised and controlled newspaper while falsely passing it off as "cadet run".4. Allow us to use VMI's email system and infrastructure to communicate with the Corps of Cadets.5. Embrace the positive opportunity and example that The Cadet has always represented for VMI. We will continue proudly publishing The Cadet, our paper, whether these demands are met or not. Our voice emanates from the Corps in perpetuity. Does yours?