The chief diversity officer of the nation’s oldest state-supported military college, Virginia Military Institute, has turned in her resignation amid a debate among alumni over the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Jamica Love took on the new role in July 2021 — a month after a state-sanctioned report found VMI failed to address institutional racism and sexism and must be held accountable for making changes.
Love’s resignation was announced Thursday by VMI’s first Black superintendent, retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, and was first reported by The Washington Post.
Love, who is the only Black woman to report to VMI’s superintendent, declined to comment in an email to The Associated Press Friday.
Shah Rahman, a 1997 VMI graduate, told the AP that Love was an asset to the school and that her leaving is “a terrible thing.”
Love’s hiring has been part of recent diversity efforts at the school, which was founded in Lexington in 1839 and carries the prestige of educating the likes of Gen. George Patton.
VMI didn’t accept African Americans until 1968 or accept women until after a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Almost quarter of the school’s cadets are now people of color, while 14% are women.
The report released in 2021 said “racial slurs and jokes are not uncommon” at VMI and contributed “to an atmosphere of hostility toward minorities.”
“Although VMI has no…
