Letters to the Editor: No Confidence

By Letters to the Editor | The Virginian-Pilot & Daily Press

PUBLISHED: September 30, 2025 at 6:00 PM EDT

It’s homecoming week at Virginia Wesleyan University, but we alumni don’t feel like we have a home anymore.

In August, VWU announced that it will be renaming itself Batten University to honor long-time mega-donor Jane Batten. The announcement shocked us. We know and appreciate the Batten family’s investment in VWU, but sacrificing our identity, history and heritage in honor of one single donor is extreme — so extreme that even Jane Batten admitted to having to be “talked into it” over time.

At no time during the renaming process were alumni outside of the inner-workings of VWU consulted. We consider this an insult by a place we’ve helped build by taking its name into the world with us personally and professionally. University president Scott D. Miller has called us “mean-spirited” for protesting and petitioning against the name change, and that the decision is “final.” Alienating the alumni is like cutting the line to your own ship’s anchor: irresponsible and reckless, for an anchor is only as strong as each link in its chain.

We can’t officially call for a vote of “no confidence,” so consider this a symbolic one. We think the Board of Trustees and Miller need to be held accountable for making an incredibly bad decision regarding the future of VWU. It’s not too late to change course — to be like Cracker Barrel and recognize that our heritage is our identity and, more simply, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Jessica Bartee Thompson, VWU Class of ‘94, Huntersville, N.C.