University of Missouri President steps down as a result of racial activist students

Jessica Dorcelien
Staff Writer

      The students of the University of Missouri have requested and succeeded in the removal of the university’s president Timothy M. Wolfe from administrative power. After repetitive instances of racial slurs used against the African- American minority of the school’s campus, professors, additional staff members, and more than half a dozen football players boycotted. Protests began as a result of verbal altercation that began in early September of this year when the president of the university’s student government, a black male, reportedly had racial slurs shouted at him. Swastika symbols sketched into human feces that have been left in dormitories containing minority students have resulted in many students pointing blame towards the lack of enforcement by the university’s administration. Abigail Hollis, a minority student of the university, blatantly recalled the university as being “unhealthy and unsafe for [minority students like herself]” after multiple trucks flying Confederate flags drove past a recent protest.

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      National attention has been brought to the matter as the lack of racism awareness has caused threats of walk-outs by faculty and strikes by the university’s football players. The Concerned Students of 1950, the activist group behind the peaceful protests, have been working towards ending the racial hostility at the University of Missouri. The group of activists, their name deriving from the year that the university accepted its first African- American student, has demanded the introduction of a mandatory racial awareness program, the hiring of more black faculty and staff, and the stepping down of Wolfe as president. Johnathan Butler, a Mizzou graduate, conducted a week-long hunger strike, also in an attempt to remove Wolfe from administration.  
      On Monday, Nov. 9, President Wolfe announced his resignation at the Board of Curators meeting, and the resignation was accepted later that day by the university’s board members, marking a successful ending to the Concerned Students of 1950’s peaceful protests and Butler’s hunger strike. After Wolfe’s resignation, Butler was reportedly helped to a car and taken to the hospital where he was quoted saying that he was feeling better.