Letters to the Editor: I Stand With Alumni
- Staff
- Nov 22, 2025
- 1 min read
Re “Virginia Wesleyan graduate ousted from alumni council” (A1, Nov. 17):
My conscience will not allow me to remain silent in the face of the atrocious developments at Virginia Wesleyan University. I joined the faculty in 1970 and helped create the excellent academic program and the dynamic atmosphere of that era, which included close involvement of students in virtually all aspects of campus life.
I retired in 2002, proud of my 32-year career and the thousands of students I helped to educate. My most proud possession is a plaque noting that I was twice awarded the college’s distinguished teaching award.
How times have changed. The current president and Board of Trustees make major decisions such as the name change in secret without meaningful input from important constituents of the university community, including alumni and faculty emeriti. Any dissension is punished, as in the case of former Alumni Council member Kim Mayo.
Moreover, the response to alumni efforts to have a dialogue about the name change has been met with stubborn intransigence by the administration and Board of Trustees. I can only conclude that the open and collaborative tradition fostered by former Presidents Lambuth Clarke and William Greer has been replaced by contempt for Wesleyan’s traditions and those of us who devoted our careers to fostering them. I stand with the so-called “mean-spirited” alumni (as current President Scott Miller called them) and always will.
Daniel W. Graf,
Ph.D., Virginia Beach
Originally published in The Virginian-Pilot 11/22/25
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