Virginia Wesleyan alumni say they were dismissed, ignored during name change process

WHRO | By Jim Morrison

Published December 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM EST

Accounts from Virginia Wesleyan University’s Alumni Council shed light on a name change process that was a closely held campaign, and a culmination of university President Scott Miller’s decade of leadership marked by transformative – and at times, controversial – decisions.

Marie Nicolo remembers she was the first to speak at a hastily arranged Zoom meeting of the Virginia Wesleyan University Alumni Council on Aug. 22.

It was two days after the school announced it would become Batten University at an event the school said was a “special celebration of The Batten Legacy,” blindsiding Nicolo and other alumni.

"I said I was unhappy with the decision and how it was made, how no one knew it was coming, no one was brought into the decision-making or given a chance to voice their opinions," she recalled. "Why was the name Virginia Wesleyan taken out completely? They could have named it Virginia Wesleyan, Batten Campus. I was totally against the underhanded way it was done."

President Scott Miller, who shepherded the name change through the Board of Trustees in the months prior, did not attend the meeting. His Chief of Staff Kelly Cordova said the Alumni Council received invitations announcing a “special celebration of The Batten Legacy” where the surprise announcement was made.

“Because they were all invited to that event on August 20, there was no need for President Miller to be at the August 22 meeting,” Cordova said.

Cordova reassured the Alumni Council that only the name was changing and the school’s legacy would remain the same. She championed local philanthropist Jane Batten's donations to the university, concluding that it was only fitting to change the name, according to Nicolo’s recollection.

Eleven members attended the meeting, which began at noon and was announced in an email the previous day. Two of the 22 Alumni Council members had already resigned to protest the name change. They included Virginia Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame honoree Brandon Adair, a National Basketball Association referee who won a national basketball championship at the school.

Two members, including the Alumni Council chair, who serves as an ex officio member of the university’s Board of Trustees, asked why the council had not been included in name change discussions. Cordova told each of them it was a discussion to continue privately.

"That pretty much ended the meeting," Nicolo remembered.

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