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 President Tim Wolfe's high-profile resignation, followed by news
that Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin would be moved to a new job, was the
latest shock to the state of Missouri, and the United States at
large, which has been roiled for more than a year by racial tensions
after police shot and killed an unarmed young black man in the
state.
Unrest at the university, widely known as "Mizzou," started on Sept.
12 when Payton Head, president of the Missouri Students Association,
said on his Facebook page that he was repeatedly racially abused on
campus by someone riding in a pickup truck.
His post went viral, and the lack of any strong reaction by Wolfe
led to demonstrations at the school's homecoming parade the
following month, when protesters blocked the university president's
car, according to local news reports.
Later that month, a swastika drawn in feces was found at a
university dorm building, according to the Residence Halls
Association.
Protests reached a critical point this weekend when the university's
black football players refused to practice or play until Wolfe
stepped down, and some teachers and students threatened to boycott
classes.
In a televised news conference on Monday held to announce his
resignation, an emotional Wolfe said, "I take full responsibility
for this frustration and I take full responsibility for the inaction
that has occurred.”
“My decision to resign comes out of love, not hate,” he added,
quoting passages from the Bible. "Please, please use this
resignation to heal, not to hate.”
Wolfe, a former software executive who joined the university in
2012, is the 23rd president of the four-campus system. As a state
school, it receives public funding. Up until Monday, Wolfe had shown
no inclination to resign, although he had acknowledged change was
needed and had planned a new "diversity and inclusion strategy" to
be released next April.
The university's board also issued an apology later on Monday and
said that Chancellor Loftin would relinquish that role and take up
the new job of director for research facility development on Jan. 1.
“To those who have suffered, I apologize on behalf of the university
for being slow to respond to experiences that are unacceptable and
offensive in our campus communities and in our society,” Donald
Cupps, chair of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, said
in a statement.
Cupps said the university would create the role of Chief Diversity,
Inclusion and Equity Officer and start a full review of the school's
policies on staff and student conduct within the next three months.
TIGERS THREATENED STRIKE
The football team, known as the Tigers, suspended practice on
Saturday and Sunday, and more than 30 black players had vowed not to
return until Wolfe resigned or was fired.
That would have been a financial hit to the university, which, under
its contract, would have had to pay $1 million to next weekend's
opponents, Brigham Young University, if the Tigers failed to play.
Missouri's athletics department said on Twitter that football
activities would resume on Tuesday in preparation for Saturday's
game.
In addition to the team's action, student Jonathan Butler held a
weeklong hunger strike, which he ended on Monday.
"It should not have taken this much, and it is disgusting and vile
that we find ourselves in the place that we do," Butler told
reporters on campus after Wolfe announced his resignation.
Protests on campus had been led by a group called
ConcernedStudent1950, which says black students have endured racial
slurs and believes white students benefit from favoritism in many
aspects of campus life.
The group, which takes its name from the year the university first
admitted black students, on Monday demanded an immediate meeting
with the university's faculty council, Board of Curators and the
governor of Missouri to discuss shared governance of the school.
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"While today may seem bright to some, this is just a beginning in
dismantling systems of oppression in higher education, specifically
the UM system," Marshall Allen, a member of the group, told more
than 500 people gathered on campus.
"This was the right decision to help the university turn the page,
and for its leaders to recommit to ending racism on campus," U.S.
Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a Democrat and a graduate of
the school, said in an emailed statement.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, also a Democrat, welcomed the move.
“Tim Wolfe’s resignation was a necessary step toward healing and
reconciliation on the University of Missouri campus, and I
appreciate his decision to do so,” Nixon said in a statement.
A majority of the approximately 35,000 students at the university in
Columbia, about 125 miles (200 km) west of St. Louis, is white.
Total enrollment at the university is 35,488, according to the
school's website, including undergraduate, graduate and professional
students. Last year, in the school's most recent figures available,
about 7 percent of students were black.
Racial tensions in Missouri flared last year when a white policeman
in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson killed an unarmed young black
man and a grand jury brought no charges against the officer. The
shooting kindled nationwide soul-searching and protests about the
treatment of blacks by law enforcement.
Recent problems at the university started with the shooting in
Ferguson, Justin Honore, a 20-year old sophomore from Dallas, told
Reuters amid celebrations on campus.
"There was a lot of racial tension around the Ferguson issue. A lot
of the student body are from the St. Louis, Ferguson area," said
Honore, who is black. "When a lot of that was going down, they felt
very hurt and judged that people were jumping to conclusions about
their community, about who they were."
Racial tensions have dogged other American schools as well recently.
Yale University saw small-scale protests last week after a
fraternity turned away black guests at a Halloween party, saying,
according to reports at the time, that only white women would be
admitted.
Anger over the alleged incident led to a series of meetings between
students and top administrators, including Peter Salovey, president
of the Ivy League school in New Haven, Connecticut. Salovey called
for "greater inclusion, healing, mutual respect and understanding."
On Monday, a crowd of a few hundred people held what they called a
“march of resilience” on Yale’s campus on Monday.
In late October, the University of Louisville issued an apology
after an outcry over a photograph showing school staff, including
school President James Ramsey, during a party donning sombreros and
other items associated with Hispanic culture. Ramsey's office
subsequently issued a statement saying the school would initiate
diversity training immediately.
(Reporting by Anthony Romano, Shawn Shinneman and Lakshna Mehta in
Columbia, Missouri, Kevin Murphy in Kansas City and Ben Klayman in
Detroit; Additional reporting by Scott Malone in Boston, Katie
Reilly, Laila Kearney and Angela Moon in New York; Writing by Bill
Rigby; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Andrew Hay, Toni Reinhold)
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