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U.S. NEWSTuesday 10 November 2015
U. of Missouri president, chancellor leave over race tension
S. BALLENTINE talking again to make the complaints, Wolfe had Sophomore Katelyn Brown body losing their job. It was
J. SUHR changes necessary.” taken little public action said she wasn’t necessar- simply and primarily about
Associated Press Hours later, the top ad- and made few statements. ily aware of chronic rac- a young man’s life.”
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The ministrator of the Colum- As students leveled more ism at the school, but she After Wolfe’s announce-
president of the University bia campus, Chancellor R. grievances this fall, he was applauded the efforts of ment, Butler ended his
of Missouri system and the Bowen Loftin, announced increasingly seen as aloof, black student groups. strike. He appeared weak
head of its flagship campus and unsteady as two peo-
resigned Monday with the University of Missouri system President Tim Wolfe announces his resignation from office, Monday, ple helped him into a sea
football team and others Nov. 9, 2015, during a UM System Board of Curators meeting in University Hall at the campus in of celebrants on campus.
on campus in open revolt Columbia, Mo. Wolfe has been under fire for his handling of race complaints that had threatened Many broke into dance
over what they saw as indif- to upend the football season and moved one student to go on a hunger strike. upon seeing him.
ference to racial tensions Football practice was to
at the school. (Justin L. Stewart/Columbia Missourian via AP) resume Tuesday ahead of
President Tim Wolfe, a for- Saturday’s game against
mer business executive that he would step down out of touch and insensitive “I personally don’t see it a Brigham Young University
with no previous experi- at the end of the year and lot, but I’m a middle-class at Arrowhead Stadium, the
ence in academic leader- shift to leading research ef- to their concerns. He soon white girl,” she said. “I stand home of the NFL’s Kansas
ship, took “full responsibility forts. with the people experienc- City Chiefs. Canceling the
for the frustration” students The school’s undergradu- became the protesters’ ing this.” She credited so- game could have cost the
expressed and said their ate population is 79 per- cial media with propelling school more than $1 million.
complaints were “clear” cent white and 8 percent main target. the protests, saying it of- Shaun Harper, executive di-
and “real.” black. The state is about 83 fered “a platform to unite.” rector for the Study of Race
For months, black student percent white and nearly In a statement issued Sun- At a news conference and Equity in Education at
groups had complained 12 percent black. The Co- Monday, head football the University of Pennsylva-
that Wolfe was unrespon- lumbia campus is about day, Wolfe acknowledged coach Gary Pinkel said his nia, said the black football
sive to racial slurs and other 120 miles west of Ferguson, players were concerned players “understood that
slights on the overwhelm- Missouri, where Michael that “change is needed” with the health of Jonathan they have the power.”
ingly white main campus of Brown was killed last year Butler, who had not eaten “That is so rare,” said Harp-
the state’s four-college sys- in a fatal shooting that and said the university was for a week as part of pro- er, who authored a 2013
tem. The complaints came helped spawn the national tests against Wolfe. study on black male stu-
to a head two days ago, “Black Lives Matter” move- working to draw up a plan “During those discussions,” dent-athletes and racial
when at least 30 black foot- ment rebuking police treat- athletic director Mack inequities in NCAA Division
ball players announced ment of minorities. by April to promote diver- Rhoades said, “there was I sports. “Not in our modern
that they would not play In response to the race never any talk about any- history have we seen black
until the president left. A sity and tolerance. But by students collectively flex
graduate student went on their muscle in this way.”
a weeklong hunger strike. the end of that day, a cam- The protests began after
Wolfe’s announcement the student government
came at the start of what pus sit-in had grown in size, president, who is black, said
had been expected to in September that people
be a lengthy closed-door graduate student groups in a passing pickup truck
meeting of the school’s shouted racial slurs at him.
governing board. planned walkouts and poli- In early October, members
“This is not the way change of a black student organi-
comes about,” he said, al- ticians began to weigh in. zation said slurs were hurled
luding to recent protests, at them by an apparently
in a halting statement that After the resignation an- drunken white student.
was simultaneously apolo- Frustrations flared again
getic, clumsy and defiant. nouncement, students during a homecoming pa-
“We stopped listening to rade, when black protest-
each other.” and teachers in Columbia ers blocked Wolfe’s car,
He urged students, faculty and he did not get out and
and staff to use the resig- hugged and chanted. talk to them. They were re-
nation “to heal and start moved by police.q
