COLUMBIA — In a strongly worded letter, the MU interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity told members of Concerned Student 1950 on Thursday to set aside their demands and work collaboratively.
Interim Vice Chancellor Chuck Henson was responding to a revised list of demands the students made during campus protests last fall. The revised list, unveiled Wednesday on Twitter, included more details about fulfilling the group's call for more diverse faculty, more student resources and targeted funding.
Henson's response took issue with what appeared from the group's online presentation to be an uncompromising, somewhat unrealistic approach.
"If you sincerely want better relationships, the time for demands, threats and arbitrary deadlines is over — you don't need them," he wrote in the letter.
Henson also made these points:
- In relationships, there is no place for demands because there is no need for demands.
- He has invited group members to meet him, but thus far, they have not met.
- Had they accepted his invitation to meet face-to-face, they would already know the answers to most of the issues raised in their recent communication.
- He and others are already working on almost all of the issues raised in the communication.
- There are things, such as hiring faculty or staff or admitting students based on protected characteristics to meet a numerical target, that will not and cannot be done. Some are against state and federal law.
- They would also know that a group within his division is already looking for input to address their concerns.
UM System Interim President Mike Middleton echoed Henson's language in an emailed response to the revised demands. "The time for demands has passed," he said.
He encouraged students to be "part of the solution" by engaging with The Working Group, a series of weekly meetings with student leaders sponsored by the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative. The purpose is to share with students what the administration is doing to achieve inclusion.
Concerned Student 1950 maintains that six of the eight demands released in October have not been met. The other two demands, which called for Tim Wolfe's resignation and for a hand-written apology by the former UM System president, have been resolved by virtue of Wolfe's resignation.
Members expressed frustration that after nearly four months, the university "fails to display legitimate urgency" to make sure the demands are met entirely.
The group tweeted: "Be clear, these demands are not to be seen as 'request,' but obligatory to addressing and dismantling institutional racism on our campus."
“We will remain committed to ensuring our demands are met by any means necessary,” the statement said.
Both administrators took issue with the claim that no progress had been made.
"We have already begun the very important work of making our campuses more diverse, equitable and inclusive," Middleton said in his email.
In one of the expanded demands, Concerned Student 1950 stated it wants a statue of Lloyd Gaines placed on Mel Carnahan Quadrangle. The civil rights activist and law student disappeared in 1939 shortly after winning a Supreme Court case that led MU to admit its first class of black law students.
Among the other demands are a racial awareness workshop requirement, expansion of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center and a panel to interview and hire candidates for the Office of Minority Students staff.
Supervising editor is Jeanne Abbott.
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(24) comments
As a Native American I demand that the University open a Native American Students Center, officially support reparations from Black Americans for the slaughtering, raping and pillaging of our people by the "Buffalo Soldiers".
Ellis Smith - Hope that is true, and thanks for the humor and the old-school music reference. That is one of my favorite pieces of music, albeit the lyrics are about a tragedy. Must have always been a blues kind of guy for a German-Irish dude from South St. Louis, aka Wild Horses and Angie by the Rolling Stones are also two of my favorites, and Simple Man just got through playing on the radio. Have a good rest of your weekend. (Thomas Sowell is a gift to America.)
I had long since ceased working for Oglebay Norton (ONCO) when the "Fitzgerald" disaster occurred, and I didn't work for their profitable Columbia Transportation Division when I was an employee. However, because various people who knew I worked for Oglebay Norton's Ferro* Engineering Division have asked me about the "Fitzgerald", I've developed an interest. Since none of the 29-member crew survived, and since the last radio transmission from the "Fitzgerald" indicated they were successfully riding out the severe storm and were not making a distress transmission, and further since a second somewhat smaller vessel in the same vicinity survived the storm, we will never be certain what occurred. The vessel split into two halves (later verified by divers), approximately at mid-ship.
Some years after the "Fitzgerald" disaster, in a legal deposition (not having anything to do with the "Fitzgerald") I was asked to specify my previous employers. The court recorder erroneously listed my association with Oglebay Norton as having worked for their "PHAROAH Engineering Division." No, Joseph, not only did I not set fire to the Cuyahoga River or sink the "Fitzgerald," I had no part in building the Pyramids (I ain't THAT old!). [huh]
*- "Ferro," from "ferrous," meaning having to do with iron and steel. The division made devices, partly consisting of ceramic materials, for use in pouring and solidifying molten steel. It was a time when America still produced a lot of steel, and so it was a profitable business.
Ellis Smith - If the people who go there and went there and sent their kids there no longer have faith in the place, why should an employer who never went there? Even many of the professors no longer have faith in the place, which was quite obvious during their post-Click meeting with Foley last week. Sooner or later that touches all degrees of people who went there as well as those who did not. (For instance, though I graduated from Grover Cleveland High School - nearly 2500 strong in my day and closed for decades now - I have never been to Cleveland, OH, but I must confess to having certain preconceived notions about the place. And I don't think I'm alone in that regard be it Cleveland or any number of different places around this nation and the globe. Some came from people who lived there or used to live there, some from their lack of sports championships and some from what was in the "news" over the years, including a river catching on fire which of course was never the case. Concerned Student 1950 is a hate group, one with people standing in line to loudly regurgitate every false narrative and bit of hate they wish to spew. Don't know why that is the case but at the very least that is the perception, and you know what they say about perception. Sadly, this very avoidable freefall is not only not over yet, it has only begun to bottom out toward the new normal, and it doesn't make me giddy to say that.
You have a point, but I question how closely major employers - in particular, those located outside Missouri - are even captured by the current hoorah. I'd be willing to bet it will make essentially NO difference as far as graduates from MU and/or MS&T with majors in mathematics, science, and applied science (engineering) are concerned.
Interesting that you should mention "Cleveland." One of the four domestic corporations I worked for was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. We lived in South Euclid. We left just before the Cuyahoga River caught fire. I did NOT start that fire!
It's again time for some humor - God knows we could use some:
"California students in Monroe High School and Cleveland High School were surprised to learn that their schools were named for presidents. One girl at Cleveland High School said, 'I thought it was named for that city in Canada.' " - from the Thomas Sowell Reader (published by Basic Books, New York)
The corporation I worked for also owned and operated some 19 ore-hauling vessels plying the Great Lakes, including the ill-fated "Edmond Fitzgerald." Do you recall the song? I didn't sink the "Edmond Fitzgerald" either! [tongue]
Raymond Chastain - Good idea seeking your Master's Degree elsewhere, because your bachelor's degree from MU is quickly becoming trash can material to many, many, many, many prospective employers. Obviously that is not fair to you and so many others, but that is the new reality. Best of luck to you. - MU grad '83 sans paper degree.
Here, Joseph, I must disagree. First, we need to make some distinction between the degree itself (reflecting the person's major) and the institution which granted that degree. You, obviously, are referring to the latter - or at least I HOPE you are.[wink].
However, I admit to prejudice in this matter. IMHO it makes sense when choosing a college or university to first consider a major, and then evaluate potential institutions on that basis. Obviously, there are other considerations: two large ones being affordability, and what one's chances of acceptance might be. [beam]
I have "recruited" (unpaid) over the years for two public technical institutes, one in Colorado and one in Missouri. When, talking with prospective students, it is my considered opinion that as a major the Colorado institute might be a better choice, I will say so, even though it's not my "alma mammy." (I would also do the same if Georgia Tech were the subject of discussion.)
I doubt that the present situation will have much if any long term effect on diploma value: the diplomas themselves will be just as good, bad, or indifferent as they were before the present "hoorah."
Concerned Student 1950 is a hate group. They don't want peaceful relations they want punishment for white students for the faux crime of being white.
- They quite literally segregated themselves by race:
http://www.infowars.com/mizzou-protesters-segregate-by-race-white-students-asked-to-leave-black-only-healing-space/
- They are against freedom of speech and transparency i.e. Melissa Click and Jana Bassler. (The prior being fired)
Just another reason to graduate from Mizzou and get my Masters elsewhere.
I'm so tired of whiney crybaby students whose only goal it so disrupt. They don't want to cooperate or work toward a solution they just think it's still the 60's and radicalism is what it's all about. Grow up!
Arch Brooks - You seem to have insight into certain specifics to which I was not a party, but I cannot disagree one bit with the gist of your post. Please keep posting whenever the feeling strikes - MU grad '83 sans paper degree.
I can pretty much tell you how this whole scenario plays out. May will be here before you know it. Many will graduate and will never return to Columbia (for anything). The administration will do what it does. The administration almost never changes. I was a Tiger when we demanded a black professor. Dr. Arvah Strickland (RIP) was hired there was no continuation of momentum. MU ignored our remaining demands in 1970 ish. Here we are 2016 same deal NOTHING will change EVER! The deck is still stacked against the student because there is a ton of discipline available for students up to and including expulsion from the university. Students are still powerless 46 years later. SMH
So the fact that the student president is a gay black gentleman and protests by black students resulted in the resignation of the system president is evidence that nothing changes.
Chuck Henson is right. It is time to quit posturing. It is time to sit down to hammer out some meaningful reforms to address race relations on the campus. Collaboration always trumps confrontation, and it's clear the MU administration is ready and willing to tackle the issues it can legally tackle.
You have already let the cat out of the bag and now they are trying to reel it in: TOO LATE. Get your popcorn, it is going to get explosive. Law of unintended consequences.
Sorry I cannot comment on this item. I posted an opinion and it was deleted. By the way, I agree with Joseph and Mary. Thank you.
@ Ed Lane: I assume that you posted your opinion and THEN it was deleted. The software for this program will not allow the use of certain words - some of which, used in proper context, are generally acceptable anywhere else. When that happens, however, it will inform you (message on your screen) that you must make changes or you cannot enter your comment.
William Shakespeare would NOT have been able to post some excerpts from his plays on this cite.[tongue] Shows you how far we've already sunk when it comes to freedom of speech.[thumbdown]
I hope you enjoy your weekend.
Oops, should be "site," not "cite." There goes my GPA. [tongue]
[whistling]
Mary Douglass - I have to wonder why no one publicly pointed that out, or even asked the question, many long and damaging months ago.
Give them enough rope, they hang themselves...?
A statue of Lloyd Gaines is a good idea likely to be supported by all.
I am not a big fan yet of the developing Mel Carnahan quadrangle. A spot on the areas around Jessie Hall or around the Law School courtyard adjacent to the busiest route on campus might be good.
Private funding should be easy.
Considering more than one item on the list of demands is illegal, I have to wonder why on earth didn't anyone in their group consult with an attorney? So much for credibility...
@Mary Douglass You sound to much like RIGHT. Most people don't want to consult attorneys because an attorney has a legal duty to give the pros & cons of each action and encourage them not to disobey the law. These folks have shown they have no respect for the rule of law and reason, hence the dilemma.
Yes, b/c all protest groups now have to have an attorney on staff.
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