In Change of Course, University of Missouri Suspends Professor Caught on Camera Calling for "Muscle"
University of Missouri professor Melissa Click—who was formally charged this week with assault after she was filmed pushing a student reporter and calling for “muscle” —has been suspended from her teaching position.
Click was participating in a student demonstration on a public campus yard in November when the student reporter attempted to enter the enclave. Her response—to push the student and request “muscle” to get him out of the area—was virulent and, according to the Columbia District Attorney’s office, criminal.
Still, Click, a professor of mass media, remained in the classroom for almost three months after the incident made national news—even as the university’s president, Tim Wolfe, was forced out of his position.
But that was before the charges for third-degree assault were filed. On Monday, the Missouri state senate reportedly spent an hour debating her conduct and on Wednesday, the school’s Board of Curators voted to suspend her “pending further investigation.”
“The Board of Curators directs the General Counsel, or outside counsel selected by General Counsel, to immediately conduct an investigation and collaborate with the city attorney and promptly report back to the Board so it may determine whether additional discipline is appropriate,” board chair Pam Henrickson said in a statement.
Mark Schierbecker, who was holding a camera which Click grabbed, tells the Washington Post the vote was “vindicating” but too little, too late. Via the Post:
Schierbecker’s video of Click, for example, has taken a toll on both sides of the camera. Since the clip went viral, Schierbecker has been accused of deliberately undermining the protests or of being racist. And while 117 state legislators signed a petition calling for Click to be fired, an equal number of MU faculty signed a petition supporting her. Among them was the head of Schierbecker’s own department, he said, leaving him with an awkward final 18 months at the school.
“The university seems to care more about protecting their own despotic faculty than looking after the welfare of its students,” he said.
