(Photo: Students at the University of Missouri placed post its on a statue of Thomas Jefferson to protest the hypocrisy of his role in establishing the university as the first public institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River in 1839)
There will be a lot of empty seats this fall at the
University of Missouri at Columbia. It’s hard to imagine my alma mater
returning to what it was before the protest of 2015.
In my mind, that wouldn’t be a good thing.
Officials, at the state’s flagship school, report only 4,009
first-time freshman deposits for the upcoming academic year, a 35 percent
decline from the 2015 class of 6,191 students. The student population is
shrinking at a rate that has forced the closure of seven resident halls and the
elimination of 400 positions.
There’s a lot of blame to go around. Fewer students are graduating from high schools
in Missouri while the University of Illinois aggressively recruits students
born in Missouri. Missouri didn’t have a plan. Administrators took growth for
granted.
Blah, blah, blah.
Sure, there are other reasons, but most people blame the
reduction in student enrollment on protests led by members of Concerned Student
1950 (a group of black students who called for the ouster of the University of Missouri
System President), a hunger strike and a boycott by members of the football
team.
If you live in Missouri, and read comments on editorial
pages in local newspapers, you will sense the bitterness among residents. As a
former columnist for the Columbia Missourian, the daily newspaper run by the
school of journalism at the University of Missouri, and adjunct instructor at
the school of journalism, I learned to avoid those comments.
They were brutal. Readers blasted me for promoting a racist
agenda and participating in the demise of the university. None of that is new.
It comes with being a column writer.
What is useful ,related to what is happening at the
University of Missouri, is how the politics involving race impacted the ability
of those on campus to improve race relations. It was the meddling of members of
the Board of Curators, combined with threats from alumni and members of the
state General Assembly that complicated efforts to move forward.
Most of it is fueled by perceptions involving race among
those who live in Missouri.
In Missouri, the University of Missouri at Columbia is
distinguished from other state schools due to its international influence. Its
top rated school of journalism draws students from around the world. It’s a
research institution that generates interest from students in medicine, the
sciences and a bevy of liberal arts programs.
The students who attend the University of Missouri are
unlike the people who live in other parts of the state. Missouri is vastly rural with large
populations of blacks in St. Louis and Kansas City. Columbia is a city with a
small black population suffering from substantial economic disparity.
Black students who attend the University of Missouri come from
communities more engaged in addressing implications involving the history of
race and racism. Those students are faced with the reality of the university’s
inability to confront the lack of diversity, inclusion and equity. Student
protest exposed what has always been there.
The response of those outside the university made it
difficult to build relationships aimed at repairing division on campus.
While members of the faculty, administrators and students
promoted listening sessions, members of the Board of Curators pushed for the
termination of Melissa Click. While members of the faculty supported the rights
of student protesters, members of the General Assembly threatened to reduce the
budget while creating bills to prevent future protests.
Rather than protect academic freedom and celebrate the power
of First Amendment rights, critics of student protest concentrated on a false narrative regarding student protesters. Many failed to honor the
legitimacy of the demands students made based on their limited perspective..
Why would a parent send their child into a climate that
fails to honor their passions? More than the role of student protest in
fostering declines in enrollment, it’s the insensitivity of those outside the
university that stirs disinterest in attending.
The University of Missouri could have become a model campus regarding how to deal with racial tension. It was the high road that could have
led to massive change.
Members of the Board of Curators and the General Assembly
took the low road. They blamed black students for compromising the integrity of
their happy home.
Why would you want to attend there?