The Columbia Missourian reports that Jonathan Butler, a master’s student in educational leadership and policy analysis began the hunger strike on Monday as a protest against Tim Wolfe.
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Missouri football players announced Saturday night on Twitter that they will not participate in team activities until the university president is removed from office.
Despite these concessions, however, Butler and other students continue to call for Wolfe’s job. A department vote on November 3, 2015 resulted in 26 votes of no confidence, 0 votes of confidence, and 2 abstentions.
Loftin’s service, his twenty-one month tenure has been marked by dereliction of duty in maintaining the quality and reputation of graduate education, violations of the bedrock principle of shared governance, and failure to defend the University’s educational mission against outside political pressure.
Contacted Thursday by The Star via email, Butler said he was unable to talk because he was “exhausted”.
The Missourian has a compete timeline of other events through the fall that have helped trigger the “Concerned Student 1950” movement.
“We are a collective of student organizers”, said Ayanna Poole, a member and friend of Butler’s. And later, students practicing for homecoming experienced a similar verbal attack.
Wolfe said he met with Butler and is concerned about his health.
Wolfe also addressed his reaction at the MU homecoming parade when the group Concerned Student 1950 approached his auto. They were removed by police.
Many African-American students are upset with what they feel is systemic racism on the campus. “Tim Wolfe is our target”.
“We all must come together with leaders from across our campus to tackle these challenging issues and we support our student-athletes right to do so”.
University spokeswoman Mary Jo Banken says Loftin was not aware of department concerns. She says Loftin is working to listen to concerns expressed on campus.
These Tigers started their protest on the heels of increased racial tensions that have bubbled up on Missouri’s campus, most recently involving an incident on October 24 when a swastika carved with smeared feces was put up on the wall of a new dormitory.
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“I have every confidence that Tim Wolfe will lead the board toward a position responsible to the current situation”. This is a pretty good opportunity now for the campus to take a hard look.
