Mizzou Pays a Price for Appeasing the Left

Via WSJ

Enrollment is down more than 2,000. The campus has had to take seven dormitories out of service.

Melissa Click, the Mizzou instructor, at a 2015 campus protest.
Melissa Click, the Mizzou instructor, at a 2015 campus protest. Photo: Associated Press

Timothy Vaughn dutifully cheered the University of Missouri for a decade, sitting in the stands with his swag, two hot dogs and a Diet Coke. He estimates he attended between 60 and 85 athletic events every year—football and basketball games and even tennis matches and gymnastics meets. But after the infamous protests of fall 2015, Missouri lost this die-hard fan.

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“I pledge from this day forward NOT TO contribute to the [Tiger Scholarship Fund], buy any tickets to any University of Missouri athletic event, to attend any athletic event (even if free), to give away all my MU clothes (nearly my entire wardrobe) after I have removed any logos associated with the University of Missouri, and any cards/helmets/ice buckets/flags with the University of Missouri logo on it,” Mr. Vaughn told administrators in an email four semesters ago.

He was not alone. Thousands of pages of emails I obtained through the Missouri Freedom of Information Act show that many alumni and other supporters were disgusted with administrators’ feeble response to the disruptions. Like Mr. Vaughn, many promised they’d stop attending athletic events. Others vowed they’d never send their children or grandchildren to the university. It now appears many of them have made good on those promises.

The commotion began in October 2015, when student activists claiming that “racism lives here” sent administrators a lengthy list of demands. Among them: The president of the University of Missouri system should resign after delivering a handwritten apology acknowledging his “white male privilege”; the curriculum should include “comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion” training; and 10% of the faculty and staff should be black.

Two weeks later, a student announced he was going on a hunger strike, and the football team refused to practice or play until the university met the demands. As protesters occupied the quad, administrators bent over backward to accommodate them, even providing a power strip so they could charge phones and a generator so they could camp in comfort. A communications instructor, Melissa Click, appeared on viral video calling for “muscle” to remove a student reporter from the quad. By Nov. 9, both the president and the chancellor of Mizzou, as the flagship Columbia campus is known, had resigned.

Donors, parents, alumni, sports fans and prospective students raged against the administration’s caving in. “At breakfast this morning, my wife and I agreed that MU is NOT a school we would even consider for our three children,” wrote Victor Wirtz, a 1978 alum, adding that the university “has devolved into the Berkeley of the Midwest.”

As classes begin this week, freshmen enrollment is down 35% since the protests, according to the latest numbers the university has publicly released. Mizzou is beginning the year with the smallest incoming class since 1999. Overall enrollment is down by more than 2,000 students, to 33,200. The campus has taken seven dormitories out of service.

The plummeting support has also cost jobs. In May, Mizzou announced it would lay off as many as 100 people and eliminate 300 more positions through retirement and attrition. Last year the university reduced its library staff and cut 50 cleaning and maintenance jobs.

Mizzou’s 2016 football season drew almost 13,000 fewer attendees than in 2015, local media reported. During basketball games, one-third of the seats in the Mizzou Arena sat empty.

The university says its teams’ losing streaks have driven away fans, state budget cuts have strained its finances, and competition from other nearby universities has contributed to its lowered enrollment. But the protests were the truly catastrophic factor, compounding the other difficulties. Administrators saw it coming during the crisis, when they fretted in emails about “a PR nightmare” and “the middle of the road people we’re losing.” The past three semesters have validated their worst fears.

This phenomenon isn’t limited to Mizzou. Private institutions like Yale and Middlebury aren’t covered by public-records laws, so they can conceal the backlash. But when public universities have released emails after giving in to campus radicals, they have consistently shown administrators face the same public outrage.

Virginia Tech received numerous phone calls and more than 100 angry emails last year after it disinvited Jason Riley, a columnist for this newspaper, from speaking on campus. “While we can respond to the people who write to us, we cannot dispel the negative impression created by the media against the president, the university, the dean and the college and the department,” one administrator woefully told his colleagues.

Virginia Tech administrators also noted that news of the debacle reached millions on Twitter , where the reactions were “overwhelmingly negative toward the university and higher education in general.” Once again, a frustrated public vowed to yank support.

Universities have consistently underestimated the power of a furious public. At the same time, they’ve overestimated the power of student activists, who have only as much influence as administrators give them. Far from avoiding controversy, administrators who respond to campus radicals with cowardice and capitulation should expect to pay a steep price for years.

 

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whatever
whatever

sow . . . reap. . . weep

Old Dog
Old Dog

Sow, question, laugh

Jake
Jake

That’s why these fuqueres hate the free market so much. That roja bitch in the picture would likely draft students and force them into f’d up dumps like she “teaches” in.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty

Indeed, EVERY action of government is based on force, while the market is not.

Deserttrek
Deserttrek

gave up my alumni association from another university. every newsletter had an item about diversity, a new diversity person, a new outreach, new deans for diversity and, of course, lots of hyphenated people
and I also remember when college football players didn’t look like a character from the movie Predator. haircuts people

Peaceout
Peaceout

Feel good story of the day in my humble opinion. You reap what you sow. If you tolerate dumbass you will get more dumbass. As a parent I would not be supporting my kids college education at this school or any other school that had the same lack of principle.

YourAverageJoe

I feel the same way about any College or University that removes statues of Confederate Heroes.
I’m looking at you University of Texas!!!

No more alumni endowments!

musket
musket

Horns down…Boomer!

overthecliff
overthecliff

Sadly the University of Missouri will pay for the sins of humans who make policy. Those assholes who run that university should be unemployed for the rest of their lives and lose their pensions. It won’t happen though.

kokoda - AZEK (Deck Boards) doesn't stand behind its product
kokoda - AZEK (Deck Boards) doesn't stand behind its product

It is already uplifting my day.

Dutchman
Dutchman

What started all this bullshit? I have a theory:

The government, in a effort to expand itself, and for the sake of diversity, has hired every dumb nigger, fat bitch, retard, that they could find. But that was not enough. They took this philosophy, along with extreme political correctness – and brainwashed the kids in the government schools. Further the Democrats, under leadership from the Magic Negro, expanded our dialog into gay marriage (I now pronounce you Dick & Bung Hole), trans shit, fucking Muslims – how peaceful they are.

Then we have communists / queers / stupid niggers as professors.

This has fucked up the kids mind’s. That’s why we have these protests.

rhs jr
rhs jr

ditto US Navy

suzanna
suzanna

Geez Dutch,
Don’t hold back.

Brian
Brian

Good…fuck them. If they lack good judgement then the parents sending their kids there will force the issue by going somewhere else. Natural capitalism at work.

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

As with all businesses , colleges or radio and television networks the left have always threatened boycotts and spread negative press to get their way . Time for a backlash from the right with the same power of the purse . Having lived by the pay as I go plan I have become more concious of who says or reacts against my interests and spend accordingly . There was a hardware chain that I stopped supporting because of their corporate sponsorship against the 2nd amendment and constant push for tighter gun laws . A few letters and a couple different gun club members being notified and poof stock plummeted and doors closed .
Too bad we cannot do that to the federal government just stop supporting the nonsense , probably 80% of the budget !

Centurion1222
Centurion1222

Wondering if the Alumni have anything to do with the drop in enrollment? Alumni fund all sort of programmes, withdraw monies and programmes disappear. The Alumni of any institution of higher learning can cripple the institution and should do so if not satisfied how the institution is being operated. -30-

rhs jr
rhs jr

I bet that the 2,000 that left were the smartest; now UM can become a Negro College.

Jake
Jake

The shithead Prog brainwashers will say they are racists, unappreciative of Antifa and “diversity.”
I would consider them people looking for an education without labels and drama.

QP
QP

Mizzou is the headline as an average state school.

Wonder what was the impact at Middlebury, Yale, and the Claremont Colleges, for their episodes.

Does this crap even make a difference at an overpriced stupid factory for weaklings from the upper middle class, like Oberlin?

rainbird
rainbird

Ole Mizzou is mainly a home for a minor league football team. As a taxpayer of the state of MO, I am incredibly disgusted with the salaries paid to the athletic department at the school . We have a 4+ million dollar a year football coach! WTF! While the historic buildings on the old “red campus” decay for lack of funds. Whenever the local news interviews members of the football team, I realize that the reason that these boys are in college is not for an education, but a shot at pro ball. Hell, some of them can barely speak English, unless ghetto – American is a form of English.

wholy1
wholy1

Ah, so be it – Melissa “female/femine clit/cunt” seen for what “it” really is [NOT], a very special/unique wo[mb]Man made in the image of the Creator with the very special role of bringing other very special/unique “Men” “IN to this world but not of it” to contribute their very special talents to Mankind to the glory of the Author/Creator for all to share.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty

The MARKET, if given a free hand (meaning NO GOVERNMENT PROTECTIONISM, etc.) will ALWAYS address the problems. That is why ALL GOVERNMENT “solutions” MUST be rejected as they are the work of politicians and the well-connected, NOT the consumer or the market.

DavidC
DavidC

A friend of mine is in HR in a Fortune 500 company in St. Louis. He told me that he regularly shit-cans resumes he receives from that school without so much as a thank-you-but-best-of-luck-in-the-future letter… Too bad, so sad… The damage will be felt for years.

Max Blancke
Max Blancke

My oldest transferred from a fairly reputable university because he was just worn down from constantly being yelled at because of his race. He and his peers (med students) were having to study in private spaces, and even avoided eating in the main campus food court, because the BLM kids would intercept them on the sidewalks and scream at them.
My wife and I did not save our money for 20 years because we hoped we could pay to have him bullied or abused. And complaining to the school did nothing.
And my wife’s dad did not survive years in a Chinese prison camp so that his grandson could be lectured about the wonders of marxism by idiot faculty and Antifa thugs back here in the US.

Jc
Jc

I’m glad someone brought this up. I grew up a MIZZOU fan but attended the U of Texas (who will never see another dime from me but that’s another topic).

The so called racist environment at MIZZOU has never been proven other than one graffiti incident. Hardly a hostile environment. Someone alleges they were called the N word off campus. No proof to back up this claim. Another incident a black frat house claims someone drew a swastika with human feces on a wall. Hard to believe someone snuck into a black frat house and dropped a deuce and made a swastika which is anti-Jewish not anti-black.

A career student and son of a wealthy BNSF exec who has done nothing else with his life other than post YouTube videos about stealing breakfast at local hotels, went on a hunger strike drawing more bad publicity. However, the final blow was the football team refusing to play. The president caved in and resigned because missing a SE Conference football game would have cost the school 10 million. After he resigned in disgrace black students sang we shall overcome like they were some sort of civil rights heros. I’m willing to bet most of them didn’t have the SAT scores to be admitted in the first place. It was a disgusting sight.

Like St Olaf College in Minnesota 3 months ago, U of Albany, Duke LaCrosse etc….I’m calling BS on the alleged MIZZOU hate crimes. But just like in these other cases the damage has been done, lives ruined, careers tarnished/ended. Mark Twain who was born not far from the campus said something to the effect “a lie can go halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on”.

Fakehatecrimes.org

GilbertS
GilbertS

To paraphrase, Education is, more or less, Bunk.

I think this is great. I hope they all suffer. I don’t know why people blindly support their alma mater in the first place. College was insanely silly when I went and it seems only worse now. Complete leftist insanity. I hope their bubble bursts soon, too.

ASIG
ASIG

About a week ago I had a brief conversation with a high school teacher. She’s maybe 30 years old and I know she is a Bernie supporter liberal. She told me she was no longer going to be teaching History which she was doing in previous years. She told me she will now be teaching Racial Diversity classes.

Somewhere in the conversation she slipped in some sort of comment like “Whites Have Been Responsible for some of the worst atrocities in history” I didn’t get a chance to challenge her on that comment. Did I mention this girl is White?

So this Bull Shit is being taught at all levels of education, College, High School and Grade School.

GilbertS
GilbertS

How did these people become so self-hating and so upset about things that have nothing to do with them? They get hysterical about things that happened scores or even hundreds of years before they existed as if it was a direct offense against them. It’s absurd. Do I complain about the time the Russians oppressed my ancestors for, like, forever? Or the Mongols? Or the Romans imposing their mean selves on Europe? C’mon.

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