The Board of Visitors is the supervisory board of Virginia Military Institute. The Board defines the mission of the Institute as a public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia and oversees the development, revision, and implementation of a strategic plan for the accomplishment of that mission.

The Board has 16 members, appointed by the governor of Virginia and subject to confirmation by the Virginia General Assembly. Of those members, four must be non-alumni, and 12 must be alumni. The four non-alumni must be residents of the Commonwealth. Four of the 12 alumni will be non-residents of the Commonwealth. The adjutant general of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall serve ex officio. A regular term of membership is four years. Members shall serve and be eligible for reappointment as provided by statute. Each year the Board appoints a cadet to serve as a non-voting, advisory representative to the Board.

PLEASE NOTE: Agendas, schedules, and livestream information (where applicable) can be found on the Board's upcoming meetings and past meetings pages.

---

Oct. 13, 2025: A Letter from BOV President Col. (Ret.) Jamie Inman ’86

VMI Community:

As president of the VMI Board of Visitors, I am pleased to provide this overview of the board’s most recent meeting, held September 22-24, 2025, in Lexington. During our meetings, both as a full board and in our several committees, we reviewed with faculty, staff, and cadets the wide variety of vibrant academic, athletic, and military programs under way at the Institute. With this information in hand, our board must make some important decisions in the near term to ensure the Institute continues to produce educated and honorable men and women prepared to lead our nation in their chosen professions.

First and foremost, it was a pleasure to welcome our 16^th superintendent, LtGen David Furness ’87, who assumed his duties just one week before our meetings. Already, LtGen Furness and his wife, Lynda, have hit the ground running and we look forward to the Institute beginning its next chapter under their leadership. LtGen Furness has published letters to the Corps and to the Institute community defining his expectations. If you have not already, I strongly encourage you to read them.

Second, the board discharged its statutory responsibilities to approve the list of recent graduates, the hiring of new faculty and changes to the course curriculum, and Institute budget documents including the 6-year operations plan and the FY ’26 contracting plan. In line with these responsibilities, the board approved minor changes to its bylaws to ensure compliance with Virginia Code and restructured its committees to ensure more complete oversight of the Institute’s diverse and complex operations.

In its open sessions, the recordings of which are available for view at the board’s YouTube page, the board received updates from LtGen Furness and his leadership team on the summer activities at VMI and elsewhere, and the progress of the academic year since matriculation. The board also heard from the Class of 2026 leadership, who presented the 1st Class’ priorities for the year in the class, regimental and Honor Systems; Parents Council President Phaedra Link, who discussed Parents Council initiatives in recruiting alongside Admissions and welcoming families of new cadets to VMI; and members of the general public.

The Institute is “No Ordinary College.” The Institute community, as a whole, must continue its focused efforts on attracting young men and women who seek our extraordinary educational experience. As we look for those young people who want the challenge of “Don’t Do Ordinary,” it is important to keep in mind what the Institute of today produces:

• 97% or more of graduates are employed or in graduate school within 6 months of graduation
• Average $77,000 early career salary for graduates
• 23% of the Corps are Pell-eligible
• VMI commissions more officers each year than any other college, except the federal service academies: after the service academies, VMI is the #1 producer of Army and Marine officers and #3 producer of Navy officers.

Finally, in addition to the generous financial support VMI receives from the Virginia General Assembly, we increasingly rely on private financial support to produce these outcomes.  At the same time, NCAA athletics is rapidly transforming and VMI must make its own decisions regarding competitive intercollegiate athletics. Both are challenges to, and opportunities for, our educational model. The board will continue its focus on these questions when it next meets in Lexington, January 29-31, 2026.

Until then, thank you for your continued support to, and engagement with, Virginia Military Institute.

Sincerely,

James Inman '86
COL, US Army (Retired)
President, VMI Board of Visitors

---

Additional BOV Non-Meeting Communications

The full statement above, as well as additional messaging is available on the Communications from the Board page. Meeting materials since April 2023 are available VMI's Onboard Meetings dashboard.

---

UPCOMING MEETING NOTICES:

There are currently no public notices for BOV meetings.