Meanwhile in Missouri - Printable Version
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As in Les Miserables, someone was keeping a little list - Redrum - 11-08-2015
Two Republican legislators call for U of M president to resign:
Quote:All of these problems stem from the University of Missouri system slipping behind over the last few years in everything from faculty productivity, to fiscal health of several of the colleges, to national rankings, Cookson stated in a release. Since April 8, the system has made national headlines for failing to protect the safety of female students on campus, the St. Louis campus purchasing a golf course weeks before announcing budget cuts, a failed attempt to build a third hospital in Columbia in the face of massive local opposition, a bungled handling of encouraging professors to run for state office, a now cancelled agreement with Planned Parenthood to facilitate abortions, the president of the Systems callous reaction to racial sensitivity issues which he has now apologized for, a highly embarrassing failed attempted firing of the Columbia campus chancellor, and now the events of this weekend.
This particular move by legislators seems more about settling scores than clear solidarity with players over their grievances.
Re: As in Les Miserables, someone was keeping a little list - winflop - 11-08-2015
(11-08-2015, 06:57 PM)Redrum link Wrote:Two Republican legislators call for U of M president to resign:
Quote:All of these problems stem from the University of Missouri system slipping behind over the last few years in everything from faculty productivity, to fiscal health of several of the colleges, to national rankings, Cookson stated in a release. Since April 8, the system has made national headlines for failing to protect the safety of female students on campus, the St. Louis campus purchasing a golf course weeks before announcing budget cuts, a failed attempt to build a third hospital in Columbia in the face of massive local opposition, a bungled handling of encouraging professors to run for state office, a now cancelled agreement with Planned Parenthood to facilitate abortions, the president of the Systems callous reaction to racial sensitivity issues which he has now apologized for, a highly embarrassing failed attempted firing of the Columbia campus chancellor, and now the events of this weekend.
This particular move by legislators seems more about settling scores than clear solidarity with players over their grievances.
In a related thread, MAN BITES DOG!!!!
Re: As in Les Miserables, someone was keeping a little list - ThePassionOfTheChryst - 11-08-2015
(11-08-2015, 06:57 PM)Redrum link Wrote:Two Republican legislators call for U of M president to resign:
Quote:All of these problems stem from the University of Missouri system slipping behind over the last few years in everything from faculty productivity, to fiscal health of several of the colleges, to national rankings, Cookson stated in a release. Since April 8, the system has made national headlines for failing to protect the safety of female students on campus, the St. Louis campus purchasing a golf course weeks before announcing budget cuts, a failed attempt to build a third hospital in Columbia in the face of massive local opposition, a bungled handling of encouraging professors to run for state office, a now cancelled agreement with Planned Parenthood to facilitate abortions, the president of the Systems callous reaction to racial sensitivity issues which he has now apologized for, a highly embarrassing failed attempted firing of the Columbia campus chancellor, and now the events of this weekend.
This particular move by legislators seems more about settling scores than clear solidarity with players over their grievances.
When politicians weigh in on anything -- regardless of party affiliation -- I just chalk it up to opportunism.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - Kathy - 11-09-2015
Opportunism is the key word. There is so much misinformation out there.
A bit of background on Mizzou & the UM system: Tim Wolfe is president of the University of Missouri system four campuses with nearly 78,000 students, about 24,000 faculty and staff. Tack on the University of Missouri Health System and the Extension Service, and you have a picture of his range of responsibilities. Wolfe grew up in Columbia (the son of MU professors), was quarterback of the high school state championship football team, graduated with a business degree from MU. After a 30-year career in management at IBM and other computer software companies, he became president of the system 3½ years ago (he didnt apply for the job the curators came to him and asked if he would take it on). The system administration offices are in Columbia, which is also home to the flagship campus. Four chancellors report to Wolfe. The chancellor of the Columbia campus is R. Bowen Loftin (arrived here 1½ years ago in a lateral move from Texas A&M). The Columbia campus is the oldest and largest of the system more than 35,000 students and 13,300 employees. It is the major economic engine that drives this city.
Now as to background on the current controversy: Contrary to numerous geographically challenged reports, Columbia is nowhere near Ferguson, the Missouri town where Michael Brown was shot in the summer of 2014. Thats a two-hour drive from here. No one at MU had anything to do with that incident or the subsequent riots. But just days later, the protesters were in Columbia and on campus. The focus of their ire is a moving target. They marched on campus and then down to the police station, and then over to City Hall where an extended screaming match took place. Then they turned on Loftin, marching to his house at 10:30 p.m. one night last March; the protesters were miffed he didnt get out of bed and converse with them on his front lawn. The chancellor has since bent over backwards to placate these students for every imaginable slight they bring to his attention. But this chancellor has made a series of bad decisions in his brief time here and hes busy trying to put out fires left and right some ill-advised firings and even dumber hirings, Title IX problems, plus a slew of unrelated controversies with the health system, the medical school, graduate students, the unions so the protesters set their sights on a bigger fish the system president. They blocked Wolfes car during the Homecoming parade a few weeks ago they claimed he didnt answer their emails so they wanted to discuss their list of demands right then & there. Wolfe didnt get out of his car and campus police hustled them off the parade route. He has since met with several groups to discuss their concerns. They arent satisfied. Last week, students began camping out on the Quad. They say theyre going to stay until Wolfe leaves. It looks a lot like the Occupy Wall Street encampment in front of City Hall from three years ago. I dont know if they go to class. They get a lot of pizza delivered to those tents. One student is on a hunger strike. One. He is Jonathan Butler, a graduate student in education who has been a leader in the protests here since the Ferguson riots. Says he wont eat until Wolfe leaves. Wolfe sent out a statement today that hes not resigning.
The protesters keep decrying systemic racism here and refer to a vague series of racist events. There have been two publicized incidents this fall. The student body president, a black male named Payton Head, claims he was walking down a campus street when a pickup truck drove by. The possibly inebriated white men riding in the bed of the pickup allegedly yelled racist slurs at Head. He took to Facebook the next day to rant about it and the post went viral. Some parts of his story just dont seem to ring true and no one else witnessed the incident there are many who doubt it even happened; others have wondered if the insults were aimed at his sexual preference rather than his race. The next month, a drunken white male student jumped onto an outdoor stage while the Legion of Black Collegians were working on Homecoming preparations. He uttered a racial slur and used hurtful language, they say, as he stumbled away. The Office of Student Conduct moved the student from campus (the universitys wording) and no one knows what happened to him.
Im sorry, but the Constitution does not guarantee you the right to not get your feelings hurt. And there is nothing in the MU student handbook that says the campus chancellor or the university president is to blame if someone insults you.
The curators are meeting in executive session Monday. Although they may be discussing personnel issues, my guess is theyre trying to figure out the legal consequences of the football teams boycott with the apparent support of the coach and the impact on the game scheduled with BYU for next Saturday in Kansas City. If Mizzou backs out of the scheduled game, MU has to pay $1 million to BYU. I dont know if there is any additional financial obligation to Arrowhead Stadium. We may find out this week if the tail wags the dog at Mizzou.
Curiously (and I say that with all the cynicism I can muster), all this started in the aftermath of the Ferguson riots in 2014, yet the football players did not choose to inject themselves into the movement last year no mention of a boycott on their way to an SEC East championship run. This year, mired in mediocrity with one SEC win on their record, theyre ready to bail on the season. Curious Â
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - martyup - 11-09-2015
These protestors claim "systematic racism," yet with only 8% of the student body being black, the student body elected a black man as their President. Hmm . . .
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - washingtonismoney - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 08:24 AM)martyup link Wrote:These protestors claim "systematic racism," yet with only 8% of the student body being black, the student body elected a black man as their President. Hmm . . .
The U.S. voted in a black president. Do you believe that black people in the country don't face systematic racism?
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - martyup - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 08:27 AM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:[quote author=martyup link=topic=13558.msg140543#msg140543 date=1447082675]
These protestors claim "systematic racism," yet with only 8% of the student body being black, the student body elected a black man as their President. Hmm . . .
The U.S. voted in a black president. Do you believe that black people in the country don't face systematic racism?
[/quote]
That's a nice catchy phrase, but what system are they protesting. What laws? What regulations? What policy of enforcement? Where is the system? Yes, there are still racists in America. But, I think we have done a pretty thorough job of weeding out racist systems.Â
Rather than boycotting football for the symbolic gesture of getting a University president fired, perhaps the focus should be on these "systems" that they keep chanting about.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - OutsiderFan - 11-09-2015
Well, many voters are voting out Democrats because "Obamacare raised my health insurance premiums," without understanding it is entirely possible, and probably likely, that such premiums would have gone up even more without Obamacare.
Similarly, based on Kathy's post, these Mizzou protesters are looking at outcomes (the incidents making them upset) and want people held accountable because the immediate gratification of getting a head on a pike feels good. The fact that getting that head is just an emotional distraction and does nothing to address the thing about which they are complaining, doesn't even seem to register. There will always be another scapegoat.
It's always way easier to complain and blame than do the very hard work of becoming informed, reaching out to others, winning in the marketplace of ideas, and changing public policy that is the root of everything everyone ever bitches about.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - stupac2 - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 08:51 AM)martyup link Wrote:[quote author=washingtonismoney link=topic=13558.msg140544#msg140544 date=1447082878]
[quote author=martyup link=topic=13558.msg140543#msg140543 date=1447082675]
These protestors claim "systematic racism," yet with only 8% of the student body being black, the student body elected a black man as their President. Hmm . . .
The U.S. voted in a black president. Do you believe that black people in the country don't face systematic racism?
[/quote]
That's a nice catchy phrase, but what system are they protesting. What laws? What regulations? What policy of enforcement? Where is the system? Yes, there are still racists in America. But, I think we have done a pretty thorough job of weeding out racist systems.Â
Rather than boycotting football for the symbolic gesture of getting a University president fired, perhaps the focus should be on these "systems" that they keep chanting about.
[/quote]
If you think there's no systematic racism in the US you have your head buried in the sand. Look at drug arrests, despite using drugs at comparable rates to white people, black people are way more likely to be arrested and be in prison for using drugs. That's just the one I know off the top of my head, there are dozens of others.
There is still a brobdingnagian problem of systemic racism in the US, and denying that is like denying global warming. It might make you feel better, but it just shows that you have no idea what you're talking about.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - SUBuddha - 11-09-2015
Well Wolfe has stepped down within the last hour.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - martyup - 11-09-2015
Wolfe resigned today. Mark this day on your calendar. Any bets on the next issue that college football players choose to fuel a boycott? Which college? When it happens?
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - OutsiderFan - 11-09-2015
TERRIBLE precedent. That is all.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - Kathy - 11-09-2015
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/wolfe-to-resign-as-president-of-um-system/article_8abc9853-bd7a-5038-8e01-885477c2b4e0.html
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - washingtonismoney - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 08:51 AM)martyup link Wrote:That's a nice catchy phrase, but what system are they protesting. What laws? What regulations? What policy of enforcement? Where is the system? Yes, there are still racists in America. But, I think we have done a pretty thorough job of weeding out racist systems.Â
Well, I mean, just a random example out of nowhere: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/marijuana-arrests-four-times-as-likely-for-blacks.html
Or, weirdly, another one:
Quote:Despite the recent and large declines in blood-lead levels, young children of urban minority families are found to be at the greatest risk of lead poisoning. According to the most recent NHANES III-Phase 2 report, 8 percent of impoverished children are lead poisoned, compared to 1 percent of children from high-income families...Among all children, 11.2 percent of African-American children are poisoned compared with 2.3 percent of white children.
http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/ocar/chap3.asp
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - Robbie - 11-09-2015
(11-08-2015, 05:45 PM)Boston Card link Wrote:Didn't we have a poster here MissouCard, who was a dean at the law school there before taking a position at Wyoming? I'd be curious if he still lurks and has an opinion.
http://www.nationaljurist.com/content/u-wyoming-fight-over-energy-law-leads-resignations-dean-university-president
Apparently MissouCard is also an expert on university presidential resignations.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - Kathy - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 09:35 AM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:[quote author=martyup link=topic=13558.msg140545#msg140545 date=1447084303]
That's a nice catchy phrase, but what system are they protesting. What laws? What regulations? What policy of enforcement? Where is the system? Yes, there are still racists in America. But, I think we have done a pretty thorough job of weeding out racist systems.Â
Well, I mean, just a random example out of nowhere: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/marijuana-arrests-four-times-as-likely-for-blacks.html
[/quote]
Marijuana possession is a misdemeanor in Columbia.
(11-09-2015, 09:35 AM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:Or, weirdly, another one:
Quote:Despite the recent and large declines in blood-lead levels, young children of urban minority families are found to be at the greatest risk of lead poisoning. According to the most recent NHANES III-Phase 2 report, 8 percent of impoverished children are lead poisoned, compared to 1 percent of children from high-income families...Among all children, 11.2 percent of African-American children are poisoned compared with 2.3 percent of white children.
http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/ocar/chap3.asp
For the past two decades, the groundbreaking research on lead poisoning has been performed at the University of Missouri by a white professor.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - martyup - 11-09-2015
When you find a racist system, go after it. Shut it down. When you find a racist, shame them. Symbolic heads on a spike don't change anything.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - stupac2 - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 09:59 AM)martyup link Wrote:When you find a racist system, go after it. Shut it down. When you find a racist, shame them. Symbolic heads on a spike don't change anything.
Is that not shaming people? If the president's response was inadequate then forcing him to resign is saying that the culture needs to change, which is the same message as your first two points.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - washingtonismoney - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 09:51 AM)Kathy link Wrote:Marijuana possession is a misdemeanor in Columbia.
...
For the past two decades, the groundbreaking research on lead poisoning has been performed at the University of Missouri by a white professor.
Not talking about Missouri, talking about America. That was what that particular sub-conversation had gone into. And, of course, those are just examples of larger problems (over-policing, which ... rather famously is present in St. Louis's suburbs), which do apply to Missouri.
Re: Meanwhile in Missouri - CTcard - 11-09-2015
(11-09-2015, 12:21 AM)Kathy link Wrote:Opportunism is the key word. There is so much misinformation out there.
Thanks for some information.
There are at least two items prominent in the news that you did not mention - so I thought I would ask for clarification/your point of view.
1. The swastika-feces thing.
2. The unrest is generally described as "student and faculty protests".
Is the faculty protest broad-based?