“A committee of the Missouri legislature voted this week to penalize the University of Missouri’s flagship campus financially because students there engaged in protests.”
Wow. That is terrible. There were a lot of colleges with protests, and I felt like some of them were silly (like Oberlin), but I had the impression that the Mizzou students’ issues were legitimate.
Legitimate or not, the result is not surprising when the state legislature appears to be made up mostly of people who strongly oppose the protesters.
Dumb idea and certainly anti-democratic. The legislature’s action is an example of the cultural problems in that state, specifically Saint Louis County. These are the same people whom voted to exclude Black students from the state’s open public school attendance policy after numbers of Black kids applied for transfer to neighboring, better performing school districts.
The state is raising it’s appropriations by 2%, except for Mizzou. This isn’t finalized, and Mizzou, with effective lobbying can still get it reversed.
The legislature isn’t as upset at the student protesters, as much as it’s pissed at the curators and administration for not keeping control of the situation. The Click video and the Football team’s “protest” and the administration’s response, was what finally pushed them over the edge.
Now the legislature is refusing to consider replacements for the curators (I think they are down from 9 to 6), and are looking for ways to punish the school, and it’s only tool(hammer) is funding.
@ucbalumnus “Legitimate or not, the result is not surprising when the state legislature appears to be made up mostly of people who strongly oppose the protesters.”
True, but to me, it is what these legislators are doing that makes the state look like a laughing stock. It is disappointing that the legislature in a state with a long history of racial discrimination, does not seem to understand the issues. Why go out of your way to confirm negative northern stereotypes of southerners?
Missouri a southern state? It is really more of a mid-western state. I think if we look at the very public racial incidents over the last few years, they are concentrated in what are considered non-southern states, even if I give you Ferguson as the south.
Click is back in the news:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLz6zkmn_0
Interim Chancellor Hank Foley had the following comments:
What the #&$##$? It’s one step forward, two steps back, in the battle to reclaim Mizzou’s reputation (and funding).
I don’t think this is ‘shocking’. The homecoming parade was at about the same time as the other protests. She stands out in the video as being more vocal, but I don’t think this is any worse than her protest on campus.
It’s about 2 weeks before the November “incident”. In this case, she and a group of students are attempting to block the homecoming parade.
It’s ANOTHER video, at a time when Missouri is desperately seeking to put the whole incident behind it.
Click just did a bunch of interviews with the local and campus media outlets, and in one of them she mentioned how during the homecoming parade she got mad at the police. I’m guessing the Missourian decided to then Sunshine Request the footage after hearing about that.
She said in the interviews how she’d never had any contact with Concerned Student 1950 before the homecoming parade, that she was there with her husband and kids and felt empathy for CS1950 and wanted to support them. But this video certainly doesn’t do her credibility any favors. I have a feeling this will be the nail in the coffin for her career at MU.
Interviews with Click:
http://www.abc17news.com/news/suspended-mu-professor-melissa-click-speaks-to-abc-17-news/37920770
The Midwest has a reputation of being highly racially segregated – perhaps as much as or even more than the South. In http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/ , the ten “most segregated” cities include four in the Midwest (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cleveland) and three in the South (Atlanta, Baton Rouge, New Orleans).
The legislators are responding to the desires of their constituents. That is more important to them than what anyone out of state thinks.
It is ironic that the woman most famous for saying “get me more muscle” curses at the police when they physically remove her from the scene of a protest.
As Curly Howard used to say…“What a Maroon!” Now I am convinced that her apology to the student journalist was insincere because she was involved in a another ruckus a few weeks earlier.
My favorite quote from one of her recent interviews:
Yes, let me call over some 18 to 20 year old men to “defuse the situation”, since, as an assistant professor, dealing with students is way out of my league…
Then again, the title of her op-ed piece from Sunday was pretty good…
That’s the excuss I plan on using the next time the wife catches me eating the chocolate chip cookies…“Sorry dear, but it was spontaneous, instinctive and regrettable” (since you caught me in the act…).
I see that she got her BA from JMU in Marketing and Fashion Merchandising with a minor in Women’s Studies. What an odd combo. She had her nine year old and five year old twins with her during the parade incident. Dropping F bombs on the police. I hope she doesn’t come back to VA when she’s fired.
@OspreyCV22 As a Virginian attending Mizzou, I was a bit put off when I found out she attended a high school a couple hours away from my hometown.
@Zinhead, nope, they aren’t responding to anyone, just their political aspirations, which likely just went up in smoke with the rookie political move. I’m an alum, have family there and a relative in grad school there. The politicians are grandstanding to placate their closeted, racist constituents, that’s all. Most every one sees right through it.
So if Missouri constituents think a professor shouldn’t threaten students and cuss out the police for doing their job they are racist? Interesting take, especially when you consider the President of the college resigned over less.