It was another day of upheaval Tuesday at the University of Missouri at Columbia, but not everyone was on board with social-justice protesters who succeeded Monday in toppling the president and chancellor.
The resignations Monday of system President Tim Wolfe and Columbia campus Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin fueled a backlash on social media of anonymous posts from self-identified students, who accused protesters of blowing two race-related name-calling incidents out of proportion.
“They should not call for the removal of TW when a majority of the students don’t feel he should be removed,” said a post on the social-media app Yik Yak.
“I am so embarrassed to be a student at MU now, those protestors do NOT represent what we are about,” said one Tuesday post, while another said, “Welp, Mizzou’s enrollment is about to tank! More parking spaces for me I guess.”
Associate dean Chuck Henson was named Tuesday the first-ever interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity. A number of professors cancelled classes Tuesday as graduate students held a silent march.
Meanwhile, the Missouri School of Journalism faculty considered Tuesday whether to revoke the appointing of assistant professor Melissa Click after she was filmed calling for “muscle” in order to eject a student journalist from a Monday protest.
“Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle here,” said the video recorded by Mark Schierbecker and posted on YouTube.
The video also showed another student, photographer Tim Tai, being bumped and yelled at by protesters as he tried to take photos, prompting the National Press Club to condemn the episode as “bullying.”
Mr. Wolfe resigned in the face of protests accusing him of being insufficiently responsive after two episodes in which black students said they were called racial slurs. One of the students, Payton Head, is the president of the student government, which had also demanded Mr. Wolfe’s resignation.
A graduate student, Jonathan Butler, responded last week by holding a hunger strike until Mr. Wolfe resigned, prompting a rash of sarcastic posts on social media.
“I’m going on a hunger strike until my teachers cancel all my exams and then quit their jobs,” said one post on Yik Yak.
Others accused critics of the recent upheaval of racism. “I’ve rarely used yik yak in the past 2 weeks cause of all the racist sh** I’ve seen here recently. It’s sad,” said a Tuesday post.
Posts by people identifying themselves as students at other University of Missouri campuses said they were disgusted by events in Columbia.
“Thank you mizzou students for acting on your own accord and making the president resign without realizing you are part of a system of colleges,” said a post.
Members of the on-campus group leading the protests, Concerned Student 1950, held a press conferenceMonday saying that the resignations were “just the beginning,” and demanded a meeting with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon.
“I am a revolutionary,” Mr. Butler chanted, according to the student newspaper the Maneater. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Several posts on Yik Yak responded by slamming the group with posts such as, “Concerned Student 1950: fighting racism with fascism.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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