COLUMBIA, Mo. ? The University of Missouri system's president, Tim Wolfe, resigned Monday morning in the face of a walkout by faculty and a strike by football players who said he had done too little to combat racism on campus.
Wolfe made the stunning announcement at the start of a special Board of Curators meeting Monday morning to address the growing crisis at the Show Me state's flagship university. The board voted in favor of accepting his resignation.
?I am resigning as president of the University Missouri system,? said Wolfe, who choked up as he announced he was stepping down. ?My motivation in making this decision comes from a love of Columbia where I grew up and the state of Missouri. I thought and prayed over this decision. It is the right thing to do ? The frustration and anger I see is real and I don?t doubt it for a second.?
The situation had become so emotional that many members of the football team had even announced they would boycott team activities.
Before Wolfe's resignation, the faculty group issued a statement announcing plans for a walkout.
?I take full responsibility for what has occurred," Wolfe said.
Students complaining about a racially-fraught campus environment began protests at the university on Sept. 24, but the tense situation on campus had only recently begun to gain national attention.
More than 30 members of Missouri's football team announced Saturday that they would no longer take part in football-related activities while Wolfe was in power. Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel canceled practiced on Sunday and wrote on Twitter that he backed their efforts to force change at the school.
The football players joined the protest after graduate student Jonathan Butler began a hunger strike one week ago. Butler said the strike would either end with Wolfe leaving his post or Butler dying.
After Wolfe's announcement, Butler took to Twitter to announce that his hunger strike was over.
"This is only the first step! More change is to come!!" Butler posted on his Twitter account.
On Monday, before Wolfe announced his resignation, the undergraduate student government called for Wolfe's ouster.
"As the Executive Cabinet of the undergraduate student government, representing the 27,000 undergraduates at the University of Missouri's flagship institution, we formally demand the immediate removal of the UM System President Tim Wolfe," the student association wrote in a letter to the Board of Curators, which oversees the University of Missouri's four statewide campuses.
The Concerned Faculty group said late Sunday night that faculty members would stage a "teach in" at Carnahan Quadrangle, the epicenter of a protests.
Students pointed to several recent events on campus that underscore a hostile environment for black students.
Student government president Payton Head, who is black, said in September that people in a passing pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. In early October, members of a black student organization said slurs were hurled at them by an apparently drunken white student. In addition, a swastika drawn in feces was found recently in a dormitory bathroom.
Many of the protests have been led by an organization called Concerned Student 1950, which gets its name from the year the university accepted its first black student.
?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,? Gov.Jay Nixon said in a statement. ?There is more work to do, and now the University of Missouri must move forward ? united by a commitment to excellence, and respect and tolerance for all.
The movement comes more than a year after a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, spurring a national protest. The St. Louis suburb is about 120 miles from the Columbia campus.
In their letter on Monday, student government leaders pointed to the university officials "silence" in the aftermath of Ferguson as exacerbating tensions on campus.
"In August 2014, the University of Missouri met the shooting of Michael Brown with silence," the student government leaders said in their letter. "In the following months, our students were left stranded, forced to face an increase in tension and inequality with no systemic support. Over the last 16 months, the quality of life for our students has only worsened."
Wolfe, who earned his bachelors degree from the university's flagship campus and spent most of his childhood in Columbia, said he was crestfallen by what had transpired. He pinned the blame squarely on himself for letting the situation on campus to get out of hand, while acknowledging a break-down in communication with students on campus.
"Why did we get to this very difficult situation? " Wolfe said. "It is my belief we stopped listening to each other."
Contributing: Tom O'Toole in McLean, Va. and Aamer Madhani in Chicago
Wow! More racism in Missouri? Who woulda thunk it?!!
Peace!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ssociation-calls-presidents-removal/75448392/
Wolfe made the stunning announcement at the start of a special Board of Curators meeting Monday morning to address the growing crisis at the Show Me state's flagship university. The board voted in favor of accepting his resignation.
?I am resigning as president of the University Missouri system,? said Wolfe, who choked up as he announced he was stepping down. ?My motivation in making this decision comes from a love of Columbia where I grew up and the state of Missouri. I thought and prayed over this decision. It is the right thing to do ? The frustration and anger I see is real and I don?t doubt it for a second.?
The situation had become so emotional that many members of the football team had even announced they would boycott team activities.
Before Wolfe's resignation, the faculty group issued a statement announcing plans for a walkout.
?I take full responsibility for what has occurred," Wolfe said.
Students complaining about a racially-fraught campus environment began protests at the university on Sept. 24, but the tense situation on campus had only recently begun to gain national attention.
More than 30 members of Missouri's football team announced Saturday that they would no longer take part in football-related activities while Wolfe was in power. Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel canceled practiced on Sunday and wrote on Twitter that he backed their efforts to force change at the school.
The football players joined the protest after graduate student Jonathan Butler began a hunger strike one week ago. Butler said the strike would either end with Wolfe leaving his post or Butler dying.
After Wolfe's announcement, Butler took to Twitter to announce that his hunger strike was over.
"This is only the first step! More change is to come!!" Butler posted on his Twitter account.
On Monday, before Wolfe announced his resignation, the undergraduate student government called for Wolfe's ouster.
"As the Executive Cabinet of the undergraduate student government, representing the 27,000 undergraduates at the University of Missouri's flagship institution, we formally demand the immediate removal of the UM System President Tim Wolfe," the student association wrote in a letter to the Board of Curators, which oversees the University of Missouri's four statewide campuses.
The Concerned Faculty group said late Sunday night that faculty members would stage a "teach in" at Carnahan Quadrangle, the epicenter of a protests.
Students pointed to several recent events on campus that underscore a hostile environment for black students.
Student government president Payton Head, who is black, said in September that people in a passing pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. In early October, members of a black student organization said slurs were hurled at them by an apparently drunken white student. In addition, a swastika drawn in feces was found recently in a dormitory bathroom.
Many of the protests have been led by an organization called Concerned Student 1950, which gets its name from the year the university accepted its first black student.
?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,? Gov.Jay Nixon said in a statement. ?There is more work to do, and now the University of Missouri must move forward ? united by a commitment to excellence, and respect and tolerance for all.
The movement comes more than a year after a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, spurring a national protest. The St. Louis suburb is about 120 miles from the Columbia campus.
In their letter on Monday, student government leaders pointed to the university officials "silence" in the aftermath of Ferguson as exacerbating tensions on campus.
"In August 2014, the University of Missouri met the shooting of Michael Brown with silence," the student government leaders said in their letter. "In the following months, our students were left stranded, forced to face an increase in tension and inequality with no systemic support. Over the last 16 months, the quality of life for our students has only worsened."
Wolfe, who earned his bachelors degree from the university's flagship campus and spent most of his childhood in Columbia, said he was crestfallen by what had transpired. He pinned the blame squarely on himself for letting the situation on campus to get out of hand, while acknowledging a break-down in communication with students on campus.
"Why did we get to this very difficult situation? " Wolfe said. "It is my belief we stopped listening to each other."
Contributing: Tom O'Toole in McLean, Va. and Aamer Madhani in Chicago
Wow! More racism in Missouri? Who woulda thunk it?!!
Peace!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ssociation-calls-presidents-removal/75448392/
