U. Missouri president resigns over handling of racial incidents
The president of the University of Missouri resigned Monday amid escalating protests over racist incidents on campus and how he had responded to students’ concerns.
Tim Wolfe announced Monday morning at a special meeting called by the Board of Curators, the university system’s governing body, that he would step down immediately.
“My motivation in making this decision comes from love,” Wolfe said. “I love MU, Columbia, where I grew up, the state of Missouri.” But after thinking greatly over the situation he concluded resigning “is the right thing to do.”
Tensions were high on campus Monday — with a student on a hunger strike, others camped out in solidarity, faculty members canceling classes and members of the football team threatening to boycott the rest of the season. In the morning, the MU undergraduate student government association formally called for the removal of the university’s president.
[‘Justice is worth fighting for,’ says the student whose hunger strike has upended Mizzou]
The Missouri Students Association released a letter on Twitter decrying the administration’s silence after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, a black man, by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., and said Tim Wolfe, the president of the University of Missouri system, had “enabled a system of racism” on the Columbia campus and had failed the students.
“We formally demand the removal of system president Tim Wolfe,” the letter says.
Later Monday morning, Wolfe said to students: “The frustration the anger I see is clear, it’s real, I don’t doubt it for a second. The faculty and staff have expressed their anger and their frustration. It’s real.
“My friends and my supporters that have been so gracious, and sent so many e-mails and texts and calls for support, I understand that you might be frustrated as well,” and raised the question: How did the campus get to this point?
“It is my belief that we stopped listening to each other.”
This is not the way change should come about, he said. “Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation. We have to respect each other.” He said people need to stop yelling at each other, and start listening.
But he said, “I take full responsibility for this frustration,” and for the university’s inaction.
He called on the campus community to use his resignation to “heal” and to start talking again to make the changes that are necessary.
“Racism does exist at our university, and it is unacceptable,” Wolfe said in a statement circulated last week. “It is a long-standing, systemic problem which daily affects our family of students, faculty and staff. I am sorry this is the case.”
Wolfe did not publicly address his job status Sunday but did concede in a new statement that dialogue is needed at Missouri, the state’s largest school with an enrollment of more 35,000.
“It is clear to all of us that change is needed,” Wolfe said in a statement, “and we appreciate the thoughtfulness and passion which have gone into the sharing of concerns. My administration has been meeting around the clock and has been doing a tremendous amount of reflection on how to address these complex matters.”
The student government’s letter was released ahead of the University of Missouri Board of Curators meeting.
The president of the Missouri Student Association, Payton Head, sparked a debate over racism on campus as the academic year began: After being called a racial slur a second time, he wrote about it on social media in a post that went viral.
A campus group, Concerned Student 1950, which refers to the year the first black student was admitted to the university, has held multiple demonstrations this fall protesting what Missouri graduate student Jonathan L. Butler described as a “slew of racist, sexist, homophobic” incidents on the university’s Columbia, Mo., campus, and Wolfe’s response to them.
A group of black students were rehearsing a skit in early October when a white student climbed onto stage and shouted racial slurs. Protesters blocked the president’s car during the homecoming parade a few days later; he looked detached and did not engage with them as they shouted. Later that month they issued a list of eight demands, including Wolfe’s removal as president.
A swastiska was found on a bathroom wall, drawn with human feces. A meeting between Wolfe and protesters on October 27th did not resolve the issues. On November 3rd Wolfe said that racism on campus is unacceptable and he would work to combat it; protesters were not satisfied and began a boycott of student services on campus. On November 6th he apologized for his reaction during the homecoming parade, and expressed concern for Butler’s health.
Butler entered the eighth day of a hunger strike Monday and has expressed a willingness to die if Wolfe is not removed.
The Maneater student newspaper at Mizzou created an interactive timeline of events this fall showing escalating tensions on campus.
Over the weekend, members of the school’s football team threatened to boycott its remaining games, significantly raising the stakes.
Mizzou’s graduate and professional council supported groups calling for a graduate student walk-out to support the protests Monday and Tuesday.
Kent Babb, Wesley Lowery and Rick Maese contributed to this report.
