Editorial

Firing of professor is right move for Mizzou

Saturday, February 27, 2016

It's never too late to right a wrong. And that is exactly what the University of Missouri Board of Curators belatedly did this week with the firing of Assistant Professor Melissa Click.

Click, if you recall, is the red-headed radical professor who threatened student journalists covering a student protest on the Mizzou campus last fall. She had earlier been recorded cursing law enforcement officials during a similar protest at the university's Homecoming parade.

In so many ways, Melissa Click has become the face of liberal college professors who disregard all rules of civility in their myopic quest for "social justice."

Had I my way, Click would have been ousted immediately for her disruption and threats during the initial protest among minority students.

When the dust settles, the university campus will face the reality of the massive costs associated with Click and her comrades.

Student enrollment at the Columbia campus is down following the protests. University donors are rethinking their donations to the campus. And the Missouri Legislature is poised to reduce funding for the university for its failure to address the lawlessness associated with the student protests.

The student protests on the Columbia campus started when two minority students charged that some nameless individuals hurled racial slurs as they walked near the campus last fall.

Though there is no proof that the incident occurred or no proof that the slurs came from a student at the university, the incident ignited the protests which would eventually lead to members of the football team threatening to boycott a game and the ultimate resignation of the university president.

The student whiners - aided by Click and others - used the episode to air a laundry list of grievances that included the need for "safe spaces" for minority students to halt "microagressions" toward minorities.

The lead protestor on the campus was a minority student from an affluent family who staged a faux hunger strike to highlight what he perceived as prejudices against minorities.

The end result was an embarrassment for the state and the university and pressure on the administration to respond to the disruptive behavior.

Click may be gone but rest assured, this is not likely the last we'll hear from her. The ACLU and a host of other liberal organizations will undoubtedly rush to her side to sue the university on some cloudy grounds.

The Board of Curators should be commended for their belated stance. But they also should be chided for their pace of action.

If you really want to know what is wrong with the atmosphere in higher education, you need not look beyond the actions of Melissa Click.

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