The Cadet Inspector General report: a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, afraid of transparency?

Editor's note: This article is a continuation of the series covering the issues involving freedom of speech at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Links to the documents referenced and videos are available in the online version of The Cadet at: www.cadetnewspaper.com According to a media report, the Executive Committee (ExCo) of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Board of Visitors (BOV) met in closed session on October 31, 2023 and received a secret brief on the results of a VMI Inspector General (IG) fact-finding on the administration's role in media and VMI Director of Communications allegations against The Cadet and its Virginia Press Association (VPA) awards. VMI, for its part, remains silent. After being a major topic for often heated debate during the July 13, 2023 ExCo meeting and at various executive and full BOV sessions September 12 – 13, 2023, the situation may best be summed up by paraphrasing a trope originating from a statement made by Sir Winston Churchill in 1939 about what role The Soviet Union might play in World War II: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…" The riddle is what the administration's role was, if any, in initiating or influencing negative media coverage and challenges to The Cadet, its supporters, its VPA awards, as well as questioning the honor and integrity of cadets themselves. The mystery is why the administration and BOV are working so hard against full inquiry and transparency by not producing the fact-finding report for at least the full BOV's decision on appropriate further actions as repeatedly, and publicly, promised. The enigma is why large media organizations and a college administration are so obsessed with a small student newspaper that publishes only 1,000 hard copies every several weeks. A commitment conundrum? During the July 13, 2023 BOV ExCo meeting, the commitment by BOV President, Mr. Tom Watjen '76, Superintendent Maj Gen. Wins '85, and the participating ExCo members, with concurrence from VMI's assigned legal counsel from the Virginia Attorney General's Office, Mr. O'Leary '90, was clear and unambiguous. The BOV President stated the purpose of the session to follow was for the Superintendent and other members of the BOV to meet and determine "What are the facts and why does everybody put, put every... Put all the pieces of information on the table." Following the July 14, 2023 ExCo meeting, the BOV President posted a statement to the VMI website: "I have asked the assistant attorney general assigned to VMI by the state's Attorney General to look into these matters and report back to the full Board of Visitors during the closed session at the September board meeting. With this information in hand, the Institute and the board will be able to better determine what, if any, additional actions may be required." [emphasis added] As The Cadet previously reported, members of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA), and others, challenged the BOV's quorum walking and closed meeting strategy to avoid public visibility of the issues. This was done through letters directly to the BOV, Secretary of Education and an online petition. These also raised the potential of conflict of interest on the part of the assistant attorney general assigned to VMI (Mr. Patrick O'Leary) conducting any inquiry. Ultimately, the Virginia Attorney General informed the BOV President that Mr. O'Leary would not conduct the inquiry. The BOV President, without any additional BOV or ExCo meetings, changed course on August 7, 2023, posting to the VMI website, "After further consideration, we have chosen to handle this matter in the normal course of business, and I am discussing with Maj. Gen. Wins his plans for doing so." [emphasis added]. The BOV President never defined who constituted "we" other than himself and the Superintendent. The tasking from the BOV to the Superintendent for him to develop a plan and report back to the BOV remained clear, although presenting the results in closed, open, or a combination of sessions remained the subject of debate. The Superintendent announced his plan during the subsequent September 11, 2023 BOV ExCo meeting. …the decision that I've made is that, the IG, Lieutenant Colonel Astphan will conduct a fact finding on the events surrounding, the award, and the subsequent queries and outreach that took place on, the series of awards that were, that were given to The Cadet newspaper. And one of her tasks, one of her main tasks is to construct a timeline, of the events that happened surrounding and who was involved, and how all those things occurred. And then to do a review to make a determination on whether or not it can be substantiated that policies or procedures were violated or broken.... she [the IG] will be able to prepare or provide a briefing, to me and, and to the Board about, uh, what occurred, uh, in that particular area. [emphasis added] The BOV President followed with his personal assurances of full transparency for the fact-finding, stating: So again, we're not shifting this under the carpet at all, but it's an acknowledgement that we're not ready to go prime time yet, perhaps with, with the full discussion. That's coming soon. And, and, uh, you know, that's another alternative. And again, I hear what you're saying, but I think the other aspect of this is when does everybody have the full body of information, all the information being developed by the Institute, the information that you [Mr. Gottwald] have. And I... And that's why I'm trying to push this a little bit into a process where when we open that door, we have all the... Every, every board member has all the information. And I, I don't wanna kick, kick any can down the road. Believe me, you're right." [emphasis added] The ExCo session ended without resolving the issue of presenting the fact-finding results to the full BOV in closed, open, or a combination of closed and open sessions. The BOV President accepted there would be topics requiring open sessions visible to the public, "It's, gotta be dealt with," said Watjen, "but dealt with on a way that both the closed and open session phenomenons dealt with properly, but also that the work that I think the Superintendent referred to, it can be kind of completed so that we've got all the pieces when we sit down and talk, and realize we could be flip flopping back and forth between open and closed sessions." Mr. O'Leary '90, VMI's legal counsel, agreed. The direction to present the full report, directed by the BOV President, to the full BOV was further re-enforced to the full BOV on 12 September, 2023, in open session, wherein the superintendent stated: "And then what I will do is I will coordinate with the Board President on how that gets presented, and the timing of when." [emphasis added] This re-enforced the IG's inquiry was to be fact-finding directed by the BOV resulting in a report to the full BOV. In a full session of the BOV on September 13, 2023 the BOV President reaffirmed this commitment in that open session, "And I think it's probably the best time for us to bring this back to the surface people, take it to committee first and then the board..." [emphasis added]. The decision and direction was that the fact-finding results would be brought to the full BOV to "decide where it goes from here". If accurate, reporting in Cardinal News of the recent October 31, 2023 ExCo meeting contradicts these formal commitments made by the BOV President and Superintendent in their official statements. The official ExCo agenda published prior to the meeting did not mention the subject. An official VMI video from the ExCo shows the topic was never mentioned either in open session or directly mentioned and justified for discussion in the closed session although Virginia Code § 2.2-3712., A. requires, "The matters contained in such motion [to move to closed session] shall be set forth in detail in the minutes of the open meeting. A general reference to the provisions of this chapter, the authorized exemptions from open meeting requirements, or the subject matter of the closed meeting shall not be sufficient to satisfy the requirements for holding a closed meeting." [emphasis added]. VMI has not challenged the Cardinal News reporting. When the ExCo returned from closed session, no mention was made of the topic being covered. How any entity, such as Cardinal News, knew such a discussion occurred in closed session to ask for the report the article states was briefed in closed session remains unknown, but appears to be in character with the previous apparent administration and Cardinal News collaboration that will be covered in an upcoming addition to this article. If such discussions did occur during the closed session, the conundrum is now how will the BOV President and Superintendent keep their publicly stated word to present the report to the full BOV for review and decision? As previously covered in The Cadet, two basic questions continue to create concern for the Corps and other members of the VMI Family. First, did the Director of Communications and the administration purposefully work with and/or influence Cardinal News and the Washington Post, as well as protest to the VPA concerning the awards, in order to question the honor of and discredit the Cadets, their supporters, and the awards, or did those organizations challenge The Cadet on their own and for their own reasons? Second, as Mr. Gottwald asked in the July 13, 2023 BOV Executive session, "It's beyond me why we would volunteer details about the administration's concern with The Cadet and how independent it is, to the outside world, and for what purpose? That's really what I'm asking. What [were] our objectives here?" It also remains unknown if the results provided directly to all BOV members and/or the IG were used to support the fact-finding and subsequent full disclosure to the BOV and the public, through a combination of open and closed sessions, as committed to by both the Institute and the BOV President. One, alumnus LtCol Rice, USMC (ret) '74, initiated several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, compiled the results with other research, and forwarded the results to VMI's IG. According to LtCol Rice '74, "On 22 September, I forwarded a timeline to LtCol Astphan in an email, where I stated: LtCol Astphan, In your fact finding regarding The Cadet VPA Award timeline, and given your relative newness to your position, I thought you might find the attached useful - you may already have this, but just in case. The attached was derived from my related FOIA files, and, in fact, I recommend VMI FOIA responses to you as a ready source of information already collected by VMI on a variety of topics. Of particular interest to you at this time would be the following: FOIA 23-69 - Cardinal News FOIAs FOIA 23-75 - VPA Award Correspondence Again, according to LtCol '74, LTC Astphan responded that same day stating only, "Mr. Rice, thank you for sending this information. I will review and include in my investigation, as appropriate. I appreciate your support in this effort!" Alyssa." LtCol Rice '74 told The Cadet the timeline he provided "… was developed using publicly available information provided by Col William Wyatt [VMI Director of Communications] in response to the FOIAs listed in my email to her. This information, as summarized in the timeline, clearly shows at least the appearance of collusion between Col Wyatt and Cardinal News in support of VMI's assertion that The Cadet did not deserve the VPA Award, and that the award should be rescinded. When Cardinal News reached out to him on this matter, he [Wyatt] aggressively assisted their reporter in developing the story." Quoting from the Col. Wyatt to Rowen in the email LtCol Rice '74 obtained, "Let me know which ones you want and I will pull them for you. Are you able to see the numbers (e.g. 23-61)? If so, that'd be the easiest way to let me know what you're looking for. (I will add your request to the portal as that's how I track these things.)" Cardinal News requests copies of 12 FOIAs in its email response. Col Wyatt then asks "What's your deadline?" Cardinal News responds "Would by next Friday [7 July] be doable?" Another FOIA obtained and analyzed by LtCol Rice '74 raised more concerns for him. According to documents he provided, FOIA request 23-66, was opened by Col. Wyatt on behalf of Cardinal News. LtCol Rice '74 also notes "This and a subsequent FOIA from Cardinal News were fulfilled by Col Wyatt without apparent charge." "We do not know precisely what LtCol Astphan's guidance was for her 'fact finding," says LtCol Rice '74. "or even any details on what those 'findings' were, but, apparently, collusion, or at least the appearance of collusion, with the press in an attack against The Cadet was not against VMI policy." "Although not covered in the attachment," continued LtCol Rice '74, "there is one more matter of interest. In the original FOIA 23-66 record, as downloaded by me on 18 July 2023, Col. Wyatt, by name, voluntarily entered the FOIA for Cardinal News - "Published June 30, 2023, 3:59pm by Bill Wyatt, Request Opened, Request received via email, June 30, 2023, 3:59pm by Bill Wyatt on behalf of Lisa Rowan." By 9 August 2023, however, this official record was altered to read: 'Public, Request Opened, Request received via email, June 30, 2023, 3:59pm by Staff.' Soon after, Col Wyatt changed his signature line to include 'staff' after his name. Soon after Mr. Gottwald began to question Col. Wyatt's involvement with the media in the July 14th BOV Executive Committee meeting, someone in the VMI FOIA office altered this public record, distancing Col. Wyatt from his previously overt assistance to Cardinal News on this record. Apparently, as with the collusion, altering public records is not against VMI policy." LtCol Rice '74 also repeatedly submitted requests to Col. Wyatt and all members of the BOV that Col. Wyatt be recused as FOIA Officer and Mr. O'Leary '90 as the legal reviewer for this specific subject due to potential conflict of interest. According to LtCol Rice '74, he never received responses to his requests. LtCol Rice '74 was one of the signatories to a letter from a number of members of his class to their Brother Rats (BRs) offering them an alternative to support cadets through The Cadet Foundation for their 50th reunion class gift stating, in part, "we have learned that a lot of you have 'walked away' from making contributions to VMI as a form of effective protest against the many changes made at VMI over the last two years… This letter is to inform you of an alternative to the 'all or nothing' option that will confront you when you consider the Hobson's choice of contributing to the Alumni Agencies…" The key to understanding? Often overlooked in quoting Churchill's famous trope is his concluding statement, "but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." The "key", in this case, may be the administration's self-interest and/or the self-interest of the media involved. The question the current BOV concealment of the fact-finding report leaves unanswered for the Corps and the VMI Family is if those self-interests are separate, aligned, or the same. The IG never contacted Mr. Rice. The Cadet also confirmed the IG never contacted The Cadet Foundation that has thousands of pages of relevant records going back to 2021 when the controversy with VMI administrators began through the the events involving the awards. 2LT Mansfield, Editor-in-Chief of The Cadet at the time of the events VMI complained to the VPA about, has yet to be contacted for his first-hand accounts and documentation. Another alumnus who provided every BOV member a sample of the numerous and significant relevant records in his possession pertaning to the matter has yet to be contacted for the apparently now concluded fact-finding. Other than writing about VMI's refusal to publish the IG report, as of Nov 7, Cardinal News has not filed a FOIA request for the IG report, associated records or initiated any publically visible challenges to the BOV's secrecy. It has not published any corrections to the errors identified in its reporting based on documents subsequently revealed, reported in The Cadet, and/or presented at BOV sessions that the reporter may or may not have had access to at the time of that original reporting. The BOV, for its part, remains silent on if it will, or will not, fulfill the promises made by its President, the Superintendent, and some of the ExCo members. Only an objective investigation and transparency will reveal the true key to understanding what occurred. VMI has been criticized recently for lack of transparency and revealing the results of inquiries into complaints of racism against the Commandant first published in the Washington Post, complaints with VMI Human Resources over the Commandant's staff's working environment, and a recent lawsuit by a prospective cadet regarding the investigation of her sexual assault allegations. Lack of transparency by VMI was also cited by the Barnes & Thornburg team for the investigation ordered by then-Governor Northam. The Cadet will continue to research, watch, and report leading up to the presentation to the full BOV in January, through a combination of open and closed sessions, promised by the BOV leadership and committed to by the Superintendent.