Teh One Who Knocks
11-09-2015, 11:19 AM
FOX News and The Associated Press
http://i.imgur.com/d1FVi3g.jpg
Longstanding tensions after a number of reported racial incidents at the University of Missouri threatened to boil over this weekend after more than two dozen African-American football players at the school announced they would not participate in team activities until the university system's president is removed.
The players' action drew national attention to ongoing protests over the handling of matters of race and discrimination at the system's flagship campus, including an ongoing hunger strike by a graduate student.The university's Board of Curators announced in a late Sunday that it would meet Monday at 10 a.m. CST. According to an agenda provided in the statement, part of the meeting will be closed to the public.
The statement says Missouri law allows the group to meet in a private "executive session" to discuss topics such as privileged communications with university counsel or personnel matters. A university system spokesman didn't immediately respond to questions by the Associated Press about whether the group would address the status of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that the school's African-American group Concerned Student 1950 and its supporters demonstrated for a sixth consecutive day Sunday against what they claim is an exclusionary culture toward minority students.
"Racism lives at the University of Missouri," one protester called out. "And so do we," the group called back in response.
At least 150 students gathered at the plaza Sunday night to pray, sing and read Bible verses, a larger crowd than on previous days. Many planned to camp there overnight amid temperatures that had dropped into the upper 30s. Also joining in the protest effort are two graduate student groups that called for walkouts Monday and Tuesday.
The Associated Press reported that at one point Sunday afternoon, two trucks flying Confederate flags drove past the site, a move many saw as an attempt at intimidation. One of the sit-in participants, Abigail Hollis, a black undergraduate, said the campus is "unhealthy and unsafe for us."
"The way white students are treated is in stark contrast to the way black students and other marginalized students are treated, and it's time to stop that," Hollis said. "It's 2015."
http://i.imgur.com/aQF0tOy.jpg
Concerned Student 1950 has demanded, among other things, that Wolfe "acknowledge his white male privilege," that he be removed immediately, and that the school adopt a mandatory racial-awareness program and hire more black faculty and staff.
Wolfe hasn't indicated he has any intention of stepping down, but agreed in a statement Sunday that "change is needed" and said the university is working to draw up a plan by April to promote diversity and tolerance. He said that most of the group's demands have already been incorporated into the university's draft plan for promoting tolerance.
"It is clear to all of us that change is needed," he said. Already, at Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin's request, the university announced plans to require diversity training for all new students starting in January, along with faculty and staff.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that Wolfe was confronted by protesters outside a fundraising event in Kansas City who asked him to define systemic oppression. According to video of the encounter posted on Twitter, Wolfe responded that the students may not like his answer before saying, "Systematic oppression is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success —"
That statement provoked anger from the protesters, one of whom asked "Did you just blame us for systematic oppression, Tim Wolfe?" as the president walked away.
It was not immediately clear what the football players' statement would mean for the university's next scheduled game, Saturday against Brigham Young University. The game is scheduled to be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and canceling it could cost the school more than $1 million.
"The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe 'Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere,'" the players said in a statement. "We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students' experience. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!"
Head football coach Gary Pinkel expressed solidarity on Twitter,posting a picture of the team and coaches locking arms.
Practice and other team activities were canceled Sunday, Pinkel and Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades said in a joint statement. The statement linked the return of the protesting football players to the end of the hunger strike by Jonathan Butler, who began the effort Nov. 2 and has vowed to not eat until Wolfe is gone.
"Our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue," the statement said.
The protests began after the student government president, who is black, said in September that people in a passing pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. In early October, members of a black student organization said slurs were hurled at them by an apparently drunken white student. Recently, a swastika drawn in human feces was found in a dormitory bathroom.
Columbia is about 120 miles west of Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb where tensions erupted over the shooting death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown last year by a white police officer.
The school's undergraduate population is 79 percent white and 8 percent black. The state is about 83 percent white and nearly 12 percent black.
Lawmakers and elected officials began to weigh in Sunday. The chairman of a Missouri House higher education committee, Poplar Bluff Republican Rep. Steven Cookson, said in a statement that Wolfe "can no longer effectively lead" and should leave his post. Joining him in calling for Wolfe's resignation was Assistant House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, the highest-ranking black member of that chamber.
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon said the university must address the concerns so that the school is "a place where all students can pursue their dreams in an environment of respect, tolerance and inclusion."
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri graduate, said the governing board needs to "send a clear message" to the students at the Columbia campus that they'll address racism.
The racial issues are just the latest controversy at the university in recent months, following the suspension of graduate students' health care subsidies and an end to university contracts with a Planned Parenthood clinic that performs abortions.
http://i.imgur.com/d1FVi3g.jpg
Longstanding tensions after a number of reported racial incidents at the University of Missouri threatened to boil over this weekend after more than two dozen African-American football players at the school announced they would not participate in team activities until the university system's president is removed.
The players' action drew national attention to ongoing protests over the handling of matters of race and discrimination at the system's flagship campus, including an ongoing hunger strike by a graduate student.The university's Board of Curators announced in a late Sunday that it would meet Monday at 10 a.m. CST. According to an agenda provided in the statement, part of the meeting will be closed to the public.
The statement says Missouri law allows the group to meet in a private "executive session" to discuss topics such as privileged communications with university counsel or personnel matters. A university system spokesman didn't immediately respond to questions by the Associated Press about whether the group would address the status of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that the school's African-American group Concerned Student 1950 and its supporters demonstrated for a sixth consecutive day Sunday against what they claim is an exclusionary culture toward minority students.
"Racism lives at the University of Missouri," one protester called out. "And so do we," the group called back in response.
At least 150 students gathered at the plaza Sunday night to pray, sing and read Bible verses, a larger crowd than on previous days. Many planned to camp there overnight amid temperatures that had dropped into the upper 30s. Also joining in the protest effort are two graduate student groups that called for walkouts Monday and Tuesday.
The Associated Press reported that at one point Sunday afternoon, two trucks flying Confederate flags drove past the site, a move many saw as an attempt at intimidation. One of the sit-in participants, Abigail Hollis, a black undergraduate, said the campus is "unhealthy and unsafe for us."
"The way white students are treated is in stark contrast to the way black students and other marginalized students are treated, and it's time to stop that," Hollis said. "It's 2015."
http://i.imgur.com/aQF0tOy.jpg
Concerned Student 1950 has demanded, among other things, that Wolfe "acknowledge his white male privilege," that he be removed immediately, and that the school adopt a mandatory racial-awareness program and hire more black faculty and staff.
Wolfe hasn't indicated he has any intention of stepping down, but agreed in a statement Sunday that "change is needed" and said the university is working to draw up a plan by April to promote diversity and tolerance. He said that most of the group's demands have already been incorporated into the university's draft plan for promoting tolerance.
"It is clear to all of us that change is needed," he said. Already, at Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin's request, the university announced plans to require diversity training for all new students starting in January, along with faculty and staff.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that Wolfe was confronted by protesters outside a fundraising event in Kansas City who asked him to define systemic oppression. According to video of the encounter posted on Twitter, Wolfe responded that the students may not like his answer before saying, "Systematic oppression is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success —"
That statement provoked anger from the protesters, one of whom asked "Did you just blame us for systematic oppression, Tim Wolfe?" as the president walked away.
It was not immediately clear what the football players' statement would mean for the university's next scheduled game, Saturday against Brigham Young University. The game is scheduled to be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and canceling it could cost the school more than $1 million.
"The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe 'Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere,'" the players said in a statement. "We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students' experience. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!"
Head football coach Gary Pinkel expressed solidarity on Twitter,posting a picture of the team and coaches locking arms.
Practice and other team activities were canceled Sunday, Pinkel and Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades said in a joint statement. The statement linked the return of the protesting football players to the end of the hunger strike by Jonathan Butler, who began the effort Nov. 2 and has vowed to not eat until Wolfe is gone.
"Our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue," the statement said.
The protests began after the student government president, who is black, said in September that people in a passing pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. In early October, members of a black student organization said slurs were hurled at them by an apparently drunken white student. Recently, a swastika drawn in human feces was found in a dormitory bathroom.
Columbia is about 120 miles west of Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb where tensions erupted over the shooting death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown last year by a white police officer.
The school's undergraduate population is 79 percent white and 8 percent black. The state is about 83 percent white and nearly 12 percent black.
Lawmakers and elected officials began to weigh in Sunday. The chairman of a Missouri House higher education committee, Poplar Bluff Republican Rep. Steven Cookson, said in a statement that Wolfe "can no longer effectively lead" and should leave his post. Joining him in calling for Wolfe's resignation was Assistant House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, the highest-ranking black member of that chamber.
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon said the university must address the concerns so that the school is "a place where all students can pursue their dreams in an environment of respect, tolerance and inclusion."
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri graduate, said the governing board needs to "send a clear message" to the students at the Columbia campus that they'll address racism.
The racial issues are just the latest controversy at the university in recent months, following the suspension of graduate students' health care subsidies and an end to university contracts with a Planned Parenthood clinic that performs abortions.