UM president resigns amid turmoil

Nevada Daily Mail

Less than a week after University of Missouri System Tim Wolfe appeared in Nevada to talk to students at Nevada Middle School, tour 3M and address community residents, Wolfe resigned amid a growing clamor for his ouster at the University of Missouri in Columbia over charges of racial harassment in a series of incidents and a call for reform at the campus.

Wolfe said Monday at a special meeting of the system's governing board that he takes "full responsibility for the frustration" students had expressed regarding racial issues and that it "is clear" and "real."

Wolfe said he hopes the school community uses his resignation as a way to "move forward together."

Wolfe said his resignation was effective immediately.

Gov. Jay Nixon said Wolfe's resignation was a necessary step toward "healing and reconciliation" at the school.

"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," Nixon said.

The group that led the push to oust Wolfe said it wants a say in choosing his replacement and wants the percentage of black faculty doubled, among other things.

Members of Concerned Students 1950 said Monday after President Tim Wolfe announced his resignation that they want to meet with the university's governing board, the faculty council and Gov. Jay Nixon to discuss their demands in detail.

Among the other desired changes they mentioned is a greater emphasis on shared governance and more inclusivity for minority students. The university's flagship campus in Columbia is overwhelmingly white.

Calls for Wolfe's resignation had increased in recent days.

Some 30 black football players at UM said they wouldn't take part in team activities until Wolfe was gone.

MU officials said the football team would resume its regular activities following the resignation of Wolfe.

Athletics Director Mack Rhoades and head football coach Gary Pinkel said in a joint statement that the team would resume practicing Tuesday, as it typically does.

The Missouri Students Association, which represents the 27,000 undergraduates at the system's Columbia campus, had called for Wolfe to step down in a letter sent to the Missouri System Board of Curators on Sunday night.

The students said there has been an increase in "tension and inequality with no systemic support" since last year's fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in Ferguson.

The Steering Committee of the Forum on Graduate Rights and the Coalition of Graduate Workers called Sunday for walkouts of student workers out of support for protesters seeking Wolfe's removal.

With the news of Wolfe's resignation, the University of Missouri graduate student who endured a week-long hunger strike to protest the administration's handling of racial issues joined celebrating demonstrators on the Columbia campus.

Jonathan Butler tweeted that he was ending his hunger strike after Wolfe announced his resignation Monday.

Butler, whose hunger strike began Nov. 2, appeared weak and unsteady as two people helped him past a human chain and into a sea of celebrants. Many broke into dance at seeing him.

Butler said it took the administration much too long to react to the complaints.

An adjunct professor at the University of Missouri said the school has had racial problems for decades.

Carl Kenney, a 1986 Missouri graduate who is also the pastor of a local church, said the current problems on campus run much deeper than the leadership of Wolfe.

Kenney said minority students and faculty feel as if they don't belong on campus unless they are football or basketball players. He said the atmosphere has been tense on campus since the university didn't respond last year to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Kenney said that even though the racial problems aren't new, it took a threatened strike by 30 black football players to get the administration to act.

Katelyn Brown, a white sophomore from Liberty, said she wasn't necessarily aware of chronic racism at the school. But she applauded the efforts of black student groups who have complained for months about racial slurs and inequality on the overwhelmingly white Columbia campus.

Brendan W. Merz, a senior undergraduate heading to an economics class Monday, said the protests haven't affected him at all. Merz said the protests are "a little excessive."