Mizzou Prez Forced to Resign for....? (2 Viewers)

[Da Guru]

Love this ginger peace loving professor try to get the media away from the story.

Looks like Chaos Kass

 

[Widbil83]

Of all things to write with, I thought poop made no sense when I heard it. A permanent marker would have worked much better. Apparently, the story could have been made up.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/was-the-poop-swastika-incident-at-mizzou-a-giant-hoax/

Looks like this went the way of Ahmad the clock kid. All we need now is for the White House to come out and take a side.

 

[Parrothead]

so this guy quit and the swasticaca was faked?

 

[pantagrapher]

Of all things to write with, I thought poop made no sense when I heard it. A permanent marker would have worked much better. Apparently, the story could have been made up.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/was-the-poop-swastika-incident-at-mizzou-a-giant-hoax/

“On Saturday, October 24th, at 2:00am an individual came into one of the restrooms in Gateway Hall and drew a swastika on the wall with their own feces,” Donley wrote in a letter several days after the alleged incident.

How could they possibly know whose feces it was.

You can't dust for feces.

 

[pantagrapher]

Of all things to write with, I thought poop made no sense when I heard it. A permanent marker would have worked much better. Apparently, the story could have been made up.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/was-the-poop-swastika-incident-at-mizzou-a-giant-hoax/

You know what is funny. When I heard about the poo stika. I thought that is was weird to have someone hating on blacks and then Jews at the same time. Most racists seem to be themed to me, apparently it is exhausting to hate everyone simultaneously. Quite frankly I was expecting a poo KKK or *igger and thought he swastika was an unrelated incident.

The poop swastika sounds fishy for a few reasons. One, that a person would either save and handle or make a new batch of feces on the spot just to do this is super weird and may be a sign of serious mental illness, not racism. Also, if you are a Nazi or support Nazis or their message or whatever, why would you render your revered symbol in this medium? And last, as you say, what kind of coherent threat or message could the poop-smearer possibly be trying to convey without including some kind of additional notation?

Whole thing sounds made-up.

 

[Sweet J]

Of all things to write with, I thought poop made no sense when I heard it. A permanent marker would have worked much better. Apparently, the story could have been made up.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/was-the-poop-swastika-incident-at-mizzou-a-giant-hoax/

“On Saturday, October 24th, at 2:00am an individual came into one of the restrooms in Gateway Hall and drew a swastika on the wall with their own feces,” Donley wrote in a letter several days after the alleged incident.

How could they possibly know whose feces it was.

You can't dust for feces.

Outstanding.

 

[Clifford]

so this guy quit and the swasticaca was faked?

This should not go unnoticed.

The new Vice Chancellor is black. I'm sure the new President will be black. I give it about 3 months before both are branded Uncle Toms and protested.

 

[chauncey]

Wait, Missouri is not considered to be part of the south?

Missouri is the South without the charm. They were a slave state. Lots of nice folks in MO still like to hang on to the past.

Border War tensions after 150 years still fire up the locals

Executive Order 44 seems appropriate with the BYU game on Saturday.

Missouri is a complicated state to classify and is really divided into several different regions that are quite different from the other parts of the state.You have the Southeast corner of the state or the "Bootheel" and it IS a very southern region. Right along the Mississippi river and close to Tennessee, Arkansas & Mississippi, the accents are thick and the traditions are definitely Southern.

Then up the river you have St. Louis, the gateway to the West. It leans a bit South, but actually has a very strong East Coast influence and is more like Chicago with strong Catholic and European influences.

In the Southwest, where I'm from, is one of the most right leaning regions in the country. There are churches on every corner and the population is about 98% Caucasian. Very similar to Oklahoma or North Texas. 'Merica!!!1

Then you have the Kansas City area, which is more of a plains state area and nothing like the South. More of a western rail and cattle town.

Then there is the northern part of the state which is sparsely populated and just a bunch of farms like Iowa.

In the center of the state, which is basically Lake of the Ozarks, Columbia and Jeff City, it is a mixing bowl of people from around the state moving in and out. You have Mizzou and the state capitol there, but very few people are from there or live there long term.

I've lived in Missouri my whole life, but still feel like I've lived away from home when I was in St. Louis. Different corners of the state are worlds apart.

Sounds like a great state, a little bit of everything. It is shame events like this and Ferguson are happening and making it look like a state full of racists and idiots. Screw the media.

 

[Hang 10]

Of all things to write with, I thought poop made no sense when I heard it. A permanent marker would have worked much better. Apparently, the story could have been made up.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/was-the-poop-swastika-incident-at-mizzou-a-giant-hoax/

You know what is funny. When I heard about the poo stika. I thought that is was weird to have someone hating on blacks and then Jews at the same time. Most racists seem to be themed to me, apparently it is exhausting to hate everyone simultaneously. Quite frankly I was expecting a poo KKK or *igger and thought he swastika was an unrelated incident.

The poop swastika sounds fishy for a few reasons. One, that a person would either save and handle or make a new batch of feces on the spot just to do this is super weird and may be a sign of serious mental illness, not racism. Also, if you are a Nazi or support Nazis or their message or whatever, why would you render your revered symbol in this medium? And last, as you say, what kind of coherent threat or message could the poop-smearer possibly be trying to convey without including some kind of additional notation?

Whole thing sounds made-up.

 

[[icon]]

Love this ginger peace loving professor try to get the media away from the story.

Looks like Chaos Kass

What a horrible generation of twits this nation is producing.

 

[Clifford]

It's only the loudest five percent or so.

 

[shady inc]

some tweets from the timeline of @claytravisbgid

Clay Travis ‏@ClayTravisBGID 21m21 minutes ago
Hunger striker's dad made nearly $7 million last year. Will faster publicly apologize for his privilege too? http://www1.salary.com/Eric-L-Butler-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-UNION-PACIFIC-CORP.html

Clay Travis ‏@ClayTravisBGID 21m21 minutes ago
Hunger striker's family is worth way more than $20 million. He grew up in million dollar mansion. Check your privilege, bro.

Clay Travis ‏@ClayTravisBGID 19m19 minutes ago
But hunger striker said grad school health insurance was too expensive? This entire protest is a sham.

 

[timschochet]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

 

[dschuler]

If people are still wondering why Trump is doing good in the polls, it's stuff like this.

 

[Ilov80s]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

I don't get it at all. What is going on?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

Tobias posted this, seems helpful.

http://www.themaneater.com/special-sections/mu-fall-2015/

It's a lot, a real hodgepodge. Some of it reasonable, some of it nutso. You've got 1. graduate student benefits, 2. Planned Parenthood access, and 3. anti-racism policies, - And of course the methods are a totally separate issue.

 

[Nugget]

It was Obama's fault after all...

The groundwork for the walkout was laid Aug. 14 when graduate students were told they were losing their university-sponsored healthcare coverage due to an IRS interpretation of the Affordable Care Act. According to the IRS, the subsidies offered to graduate students through the university are considered “individual market plans,” which are prohibited by the act.

LINK

 

[Nigel]

Anyone really believe that kid ate nothing during his hunger strike?

 

[chauncey]

#mizzou is hilarious tonight on twitter.

Allegedly the KKK is roaming campus, threatening black students, throwing bricks through windows, riding around in pickups with confederate flags, and on and on.

Unfortunately nobody's camera phones are working so there is no actual evidence but people are freaking out.

 

[Your Mother's Twin Sister]

I'm not sure I understand this story, but I AM blonde after all.

 

[Your Mother's Twin Sister]

#mizzou is hilarious tonight on twitter.

Allegedly the KKK is roaming campus, threatening black students, throwing bricks through windows, riding around in pickups with confederate flags, and on and on.

Unfortunately nobody's camera phones are working so there is no actual evidence but people are freaking out.

You seem to have it all figured out.

Twitter is really the place to be for accurate information these days.

 

[chauncey]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTghCLXUkAEaDeG.jpg:large

Student body president crying wolf. This is the same guy who claimed he was called a *****

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTgiCHgWcAAJ1xC.jpg

His apology for spreading false information.

This whole fiasco keeps getting more fishy.

 

[avoiding injuries]

I wonder if the try to hire the president back since this appears to be a hoax. Will the football team start playing now?

 

[pantagrapher]

What a debacle this is turning out to be.

 

[pantagrapher]

Arrest made in social media threat.

 

[Smack Tripper]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTghCLXUkAEaDeG.jpg:large

Student body president crying wolf. This is the same guy who claimed he was called a *****

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTgiCHgWcAAJ1xC.jpg

His apology for spreading false information.

This whole fiasco keeps getting more fishy.

 

[spreagle]

Is it still OK to yell hurtful things at the other teams players during sporting events, or is this an exception? Can the opposing teams coaches call up campus security and have the entire student body arrested and eventually expelled if such an event happens?

 

[shady inc]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTghCLXUkAEaDeG.jpg:large

Student body president crying wolf. This is the same guy who claimed he was called a *****

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTgiCHgWcAAJ1xC.jpg

His apology for spreading false information.

This whole fiasco keeps getting more fishy.

why does it go from an AT&T phone to a Verizon phone? Were these just screen shots taken by different people?

 

[Hang 10]

Is it still OK to yell hurtful things at the other teams players during sporting events, or is this an exception? Can the opposing teams coaches call up campus security and have the entire student body arrested and eventually expelled if such an event happens?

I think the lesson here is if you're going to bring a sign to the game, don't finger paint it with your own excrement.

 

[CowboysFromHell]

Is it still OK to yell hurtful things at the other teams players during sporting events, or is this an exception? Can the opposing teams coaches call up campus security and have the entire student body arrested and eventually expelled if such an event happens?

Belly-itchers need a safe place too!

 

[Black Box]

Don't worry-if it turns out to be a hoax, there is a playbook for that as well.

"It was important to raise awareness and start a conversation about racism and privilege on campus."

 

[Hang 10]

Don't worry-if it turns out to be a hoax, there is a playbook for that as well.

"It was important to raise awareness and start a conversation about racism and privilege on campus."

"It was never really about the poo swastika..."

 

[glock]

Didn't see this mentioned. If it was...

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go What happened at a homecoming parade set the stage for Tim Wolfe's eventual resignation.When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.......

 

[matttyl]

Didn't see this mentioned. If it was...

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go What happened at a homecoming parade set the stage for Tim Wolfe's eventual resignation.When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.......

I watched that entire video of the homecoming parade protest. I don't think a single person was clipped, and I don't think a single person was injured.

The petition talks about the "negligence" of the President. He wasn't the one driving.

 

[matttyl]

Didn't see this mentioned. If it was...

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go What happened at a homecoming parade set the stage for Tim Wolfe's eventual resignation.When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.......

Oh, and the 3 comments on the bottom of that petition are priceless!

Paraphrasing..

1 - I'll sign the petition only because it's "challenging my students" (from a staff member)

2 - If I don't sign it, I'm siding with oppression.

3 - The football team should refuse to play BYU, the "most white college in America" (BYU is 17% minority, Missouri is 23% - REALLY?!)

 

[Hang 10]

Didn't see this mentioned. If it was...

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go What happened at a homecoming parade set the stage for Tim Wolfe's eventual resignation.When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.......

I watched that entire video of the homecoming parade protest. I don't think a single person was clipped, and I don't think a single person was injured.

This #### is just ridiculous. No one got "clipped". These idiots block a car that's doing all it can to avoid them and now they're the victims? Par for the course, I guess.

 

[matttyl]

This.

This is the reason the petition started for the President's resignation? Are you kidding me?! Again, he wasn't even the one driving!

 

[matttyl]

Didn't see this mentioned. If it was...

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go What happened at a homecoming parade set the stage for Tim Wolfe's eventual resignation.When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.......

I watched that entire video of the homecoming parade protest. I don't think a single person was clipped, and I don't think a single person was injured.

This #### is just ridiculous. No one got "clipped". These idiots block a car that's doing all it can to avoid them and now they're the victims? Par for the course, I guess.

The guy they claim was "clipped" (I posted a picture of what they claim is a "clipping above") is the same guy who later went on the hunger strike. The same guy who's father apparently made nearly $7M last year. Just gets weirder and weirder.

 

[Hang 10]

Didn't see this mentioned. If it was...

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go What happened at a homecoming parade set the stage for Tim Wolfe's eventual resignation.When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.......

I watched that entire video of the homecoming parade protest. I don't think a single person was clipped, and I don't think a single person was injured.

This #### is just ridiculous. No one got "clipped". These idiots block a car that's doing all it can to avoid them and now they're the victims? Par for the course, I guess.

The guy they claim was "clipped" (I posted a picture of what they claim is a "clipping above") is the same guy who later went on the hunger strike. The same guy who's father apparently made nearly $7M last year. Just gets weirder and weirder.

Is that picture the only evidence that anyone was hit by the car? Seems like all the video would have been more definitive proof. As far as I could tell, some guy just rubbed up against the bumper while the car wasn't even moving and someone snapped a pic.

 

[tri-man 47]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

Bottom line, I'd say it's what he didn't do ...that he did not respond strongly enough - or really, in a visible enough manner - to students' angst. He very well might have been working to address matters, but it appears that a low-key approach wasn't sufficient.

I would say all universities have been working through new diversity awareness and anti-bias practices in the last year or two. My university, for example, hired a new Chief Diversity Officer this year after implementing last year an on-line training program that is meant to address these matters by increasing awareness and identifying appropriate responses. I don't know where Missouri stands with all of this, but frankly, I don't think it mattered. Some recent events got a segment of the population riled up, and they went on the warpa ...got angry.

 

[timschochet]

So bizarre.

I think I've been as sympathetic as anyone in this forum to incidents of racism against black Americans perpetrated by white authorities. Whenever we have a debate on this sort of thing here (and in the last few years, that's been more often than not, sadly enough) I've found myself usually on the side of the protestors seeking an end to mistreatment, etc.

Here I can't do it. I've tried to read as much as I could about this situation to see if there is some reason to at least be sympathetic to the students' demands. I can't find any. If they truly are mistreated or discriminated against they are unable to present any evidence of it. As students attending one of our finest universities they are more privileged than most Americans, and certainly much more privileged than the vast majority of African-Americans who unfortunately lack the resources to pursue higher education. In short, these are the lucky ones in our society, and they are IMO being obnoxious, absurd, and doing nothing to alleviate the very real problems that black Americans continue to face in this country. It's pretty shameful.

 

[shady inc]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

Bottom line, I'd say it's what he didn't do ...that he did not respond strongly enough - or really, in a visible enough manner - to students' angst. He very well might have been working to address matters, but it appears that a low-key approach wasn't sufficient.

I would say all universities have been working through new diversity awareness and anti-bias practices in the last year or two. My university, for example, hired a new Chief Diversity Officer this year after implementing last year an on-line training program that is meant to address these matters by increasing awareness and identifying appropriate responses. I don't know where Missouri stands with all of this, but frankly, I don't think it mattered. Some recent events got a segment of the population riled up, and they went on the warpa ...got angry.

My GF is a PhD student at the Missouri journalism school, so I've had my fair share of conversations about this topic over the last few nights. She would agree with what tri-man said. It was a lack of appropriate and timely response to the racial issues on campus brought up by the students that lead to the president resigning. There has been a lot of BS mixed in (media relations, unreasonable demands, etc.) but the bottom line is pretty simple.

 

[Slapdash]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

Bottom line, I'd say it's what he didn't do ...that he did not respond strongly enough - or really, in a visible enough manner - to students' angst. He very well might have been working to address matters, but it appears that a low-key approach wasn't sufficient.

I would say all universities have been working through new diversity awareness and anti-bias practices in the last year or two. My university, for example, hired a new Chief Diversity Officer this year after implementing last year an on-line training program that is meant to address these matters by increasing awareness and identifying appropriate responses. I don't know where Missouri stands with all of this, but frankly, I don't think it mattered. Some recent events got a segment of the population riled up, and they went on the warpa ...got angry.

Chief Diversity Officer?

 

[Da Guru]

[icon], on 10 Nov 2015 - 5:19 PM, said:

Da Guru, on 10 Nov 2015 - 3:42 PM, said:Love this ginger peace loving professor try to get the media away from the story.

Looks like Chaos Kass

What a horrible generation of twits this nation is producing.

She resigned today....

 

[roadkill1292]

So bizarre.

I think I've been as sympathetic as anyone in this forum to incidents of racism against black Americans perpetrated by white authorities. Whenever we have a debate on this sort of thing here (and in the last few years, that's been more often than not, sadly enough) I've found myself usually on the side of the protestors seeking an end to mistreatment, etc.

Here I can't do it. I've tried to read as much as I could about this situation to see if there is some reason to at least be sympathetic to the students' demands. I can't find any. If they truly are mistreated or discriminated against they are unable to present any evidence of it. As students attending one of our finest universities they are more privileged than most Americans, and certainly much more privileged than the vast majority of African-Americans who unfortunately lack the resources to pursue higher education. In short, these are the lucky ones in our society, and they are IMO being obnoxious, absurd, and doing nothing to alleviate the very real problems that black Americans continue to face in this country. It's pretty shameful.

What do you think of the football team flexing its muscle and what it could mean down the road in other circumstances?

 

[matttyl]

[icon], on 10 Nov 2015 - 5:19 PM, said:

Da Guru, on 10 Nov 2015 - 3:42 PM, said:Love this ginger peace loving professor try to get the media away from the story.

Looks like Chaos Kass

What a horrible generation of twits this nation is producing.

She resigned today....

only sorta. She apparently resigned from one post, but is still employed by the school in a different manner. I saw that in an article this morning.

 

[matttyl]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

Bottom line, I'd say it's what he didn't do ...that he did not respond strongly enough - or really, in a visible enough manner - to students' angst. He very well might have been working to address matters, but it appears that a low-key approach wasn't sufficient.

I would say all universities have been working through new diversity awareness and anti-bias practices in the last year or two. My university, for example, hired a new Chief Diversity Officer this year after implementing last year an on-line training program that is meant to address these matters by increasing awareness and identifying appropriate responses. I don't know where Missouri stands with all of this, but frankly, I don't think it mattered. Some recent events got a segment of the population riled up, and they went on the warpa ...got angry.

My GF is a PhD student at the Missouri journalism school, so I've had my fair share of conversations about this topic over the last few nights. She would agree with what tri-man said. It was a lack of appropriate and timely response to the racial issues on campus brought up by the students that lead to the president resigning. There has been a lot of BS mixed in (media relations, unreasonable demands, etc.) but the bottom line is pretty simple.

What racial issues, though? The swastika thing was apparently a hoax. There may have been things said to students by people who may or may not have been students of the school. No one knows who they were, and apparently the police were called afterwards in those situations. I'm not sure what the president needed to, or should have done in that situation.

As for the homecoming parade, there is likely nothing he could or should have done there that would have made the protesters happy. They were using a megaphone - had he gotten out of the car to talk to one of them, do you think they would have stopped their protest and stepped aside to talk with him while the parade continued without him? Whenever anyone attempted to talk with the protesters they kept saying things like "DON'T engage", and "don't let them take your power." With responses like that, there is nothing that the President could have done or said in that situation that would have allowed the parade to continue.

 

[Steve Tasker]

I'm kinda oddly fascinated by this, mostly due to the idea that a mediocre college football team can wield so much power over a university. I have no idea what happened and still can't wrap my head around it, but I do know that as soon as the players went on strike and threatened to not play a game, the hammer fell and this thing blew up in the national media.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo had a pretty interesting article about it the other day - apologies if it has already been posted - http://sports.yahoo.com/news/missouri-protest-exposes-ncaa-s-greatest-fear-200005001.html

Some snippets:

From way out in California, Sonny Vaccaro, the retired Nike and Adidas executive and longtime proponent of student-athlete rights, looked on as the University of Missouri football team organized a protest over the weekend, refusing to practice or play until school president Tim Wolfe was "out of office."

In less than a day the movement grew from a single tweet from 32 black players to the support of perhaps the whole team, including head coach Gary Pinkel and the athletic department.

By Monday morning, poof, Wolfe was gone, resigning his presidency that he held onto across months despite protests, complaints, a tent city on campus and even a hunger strike by a graduate student.

It was the football team that supplied the momentum and media attention that nothing else could.

No matter where someone stands on the issues surrounding Missouri, the way they were handled or the remedy of firing Wolfe, the power of the players that was suddenly displayed here is undeniable.

"This is what I've believed could happen for 30 years and what I think is the deepest fear for the NCAA – athletes control what happens on campus," said Vaccaro. "This is an unbelievable step forward for athletes."

What was striking about the Missouri-threatened protest was the economics of even the simple regular-season game Saturday against BYU in Kansas City.

If Mizzou was forced to forfeit, it still owed BYU $1 million for agreeing to play. There would also, presumably, be lost revenue from renting out Arrowhead Stadium, not to mention lost profits from gate, parking and concessions, much of which was already budgeted. There could have also been television contractual demands.

There were millions on the line here.

"That's a lot more than the president made," Huma said.

According to public records, Wolfe's salary was $459,000, and while there are greater concerns than just one-off revenue at stake, those figures apparently weren't lost on the student-athletes. Money drives everything.

The SEC Network, however, requires games to actually be played. Same with deals with CBS and ESPN. It's part of how a mediocre football team without a star player or an identifiable leader used a tweet or two to change the leadership of their university system, all by refusing to practice and perhaps play in a run-of-the-mill non-conference game.

"It took less than 48 hours," Huma said with an impressed tone.

Not all situations are similar, or as volatile, so where this is headed next is unknown. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Inside college sports, however, the potential awakening of the athletes could change everything.

"If the players don't play," Vaccaro said, "the pyramids fall."

 

[Socrates11]

This story just gets stranger and stranger...I have yet to see any justification for the firing of the President of the university. What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

Bottom line, I'd say it's what he didn't do ...that he did not respond strongly enough - or really, in a visible enough manner - to students' angst. He very well might have been working to address matters, but it appears that a low-key approach wasn't sufficient.

I would say all universities have been working through new diversity awareness and anti-bias practices in the last year or two. My university, for example, hired a new Chief Diversity Officer this year after implementing last year an on-line training program that is meant to address these matters by increasing awareness and identifying appropriate responses. I don't know where Missouri stands with all of this, but frankly, I don't think it mattered. Some recent events got a segment of the population riled up, and they went on the warpa ...got angry.

Chief Diversity Officer?

They wear a red shirt, and are usually the first to die on away missions.

 

[timschochet]

So bizarre.

I think I've been as sympathetic as anyone in this forum to incidents of racism against black Americans perpetrated by white authorities. Whenever we have a debate on this sort of thing here (and in the last few years, that's been more often than not, sadly enough) I've found myself usually on the side of the protestors seeking an end to mistreatment, etc.

Here I can't do it. I've tried to read as much as I could about this situation to see if there is some reason to at least be sympathetic to the students' demands. I can't find any. If they truly are mistreated or discriminated against they are unable to present any evidence of it. As students attending one of our finest universities they are more privileged than most Americans, and certainly much more privileged than the vast majority of African-Americans who unfortunately lack the resources to pursue higher education. In short, these are the lucky ones in our society, and they are IMO being obnoxious, absurd, and doing nothing to alleviate the very real problems that black Americans continue to face in this country. It's pretty shameful.

What do you think of the football team flexing its muscle and what it could mean down the road in other circumstances?

Thats a separate issue, and fascinating in its own right. Steve Tasker's comment that it's a mediocre team (this year) is irrelevant. Any team in a major conference (and it doesn't get any more major than the SEC) is a cash cow. Other than the NFL, NCAA football is the biggest thing in American sports. The speed at which the powers that be surrendered indicates this. It's a scary precedent, and these players have had no idea just how much power they have. But they do now.