Mizzou student government formally calls for president's removal amid racial tension
University of Missouri's student government formally called for the removal Monday of Tim Wolfe, the university system president, amid protests that he has not adequately addressed race-related incidents on campus, The Washington Post reports.
"The mental health, academic quality, and physical safety of our black students has been compromised time and time again," the group wrote in a letter to the University of Missouri System Board of Curators. "Now, the campus has grown so tumultuous that all of our students are unable to pursue the very reason they attend this institution."
The letter pointed to August 2014, when Michael Brown was fatally shot by a cop in Ferguson, Missouri, as the starting point of a worsening environment for students, suggesting the university met the shooting "with silence."
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The student government's call for action followed a faculty-organized walkout called for Monday and Tuesday, a football boycott initiated by more than 30 players, and a graduate student's hunger strike. A student group started the protests in October, and Gov. Jay Nixon said Sunday the "concerns must be addressed."
Update 11:40 a.m.: Tim Wolfe has since resigned. "I take full responsibility for this frustration and I take full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred," he said. "Use my resignation to heal and start talking again."
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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