The faculty at the University of Missouri is planning a two-day walk out in support of striking students who want to see the racial intolerance at the university properly addressed.
Faculty at the University of Missouri have agreed to show solidarity with striking students who are trying to make a stand against racism at the university. A group known as The Concerned Faculty at the campus announced on Sunday that they will begin a walkout for two days starting on Monday.
Thirty University of Missouri football players have already decided to boycott the football program and a black graduate student has launched a hunger strike, according to ABC News. All of this action is over the state of university president Tim Wolfe. The protesters want him to resign or be fired by the university. Protesters and strikers claim that Wolfe and the university are doing little, if anything, to stem the time of racial strife and intolerance on the campus which is located just two hours from Ferguson in Columbia.
The faculty plans to stage their two-day walk out at a quadrangle meeting place at the heart of the university. They have encouraged students to come and speak their minds. The faculty hopes that they can bring these matters to the attention of the university’s administration. There are approximately 35,ooo student attending the university. Another group known as The Concerned Student 1950 presented Wolf with a list of demands that they want to see implemented campus-wide. The group states that it represents every black student on campus and has been doing so since 1950 when the first black student was admitted to the university.
Even the governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, joined in the fray on Sunday. He declared that racism has no place at the university or in the state as a whole. He went on to say that “our universities must be havens of trust and understanding. These concerns must be addressed…”
The governing and administrative body that runs the university plans a meeting for 10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday in an attempt to address the campus wide unrest. University president Wolfe stated that “Racism does exist at our university and it is unacceptable. It is a long standing systemic problem which daily affects our family of students, faculty and staff. I truly want all members of our university community to feel included, valued and safe.”
