May as well close the J school. I agree it's embarrassing.

HA! No kidding! A school that is touted for it's Journalism reputation treating the media like crap.

I am no fan of the media but they have a right just as the students do.

And in all honesty, other than engineering at Rolla, MU is not top drawer like it once was. The Med school is pretty good but the rest is so so, certainly not what their PR department will say.

Hard times are headed their way at this rate.

Mizzou is a god damn mess, and has been for a long time now. The racial tension has to be pretty wild there. I was a student athlete there back in 2010 when the cotton ball incident happened, and I was basically forced by the track coach to join a MBMI group. (Mizzou black mens initiative). He pretty much felt that I had a hard time blending in with my peers, and that was due to being surrounded by white people, and thought that joining the group would help. Kind of strange considering I grew up in Boonville Mo, which is like 95% White, and all of the other guys in the group were from places like Ferguson, and had never really been around white people before.

And we always wondered why this school had such bad karma?

ROFL

That video is just getting blasted on YouTube. Only 874 views so far but not 1 good comment that I can see.

Which video is that?

This just gets better...the lady at the end calling for "muscle" is a Communications Professor....just wow

Thank you.

AND Gary too.. LOL!

Perhaps some kid will have to skip a few meals and the players will do the rest.

I'm sure Kim and Gary will do the right thing when THEIR heads are on the chopping block for perceived poor performance and inaction.

This will do wonders for the marching band...

What? This has a lot to do with Ferguson.

Do not click in here for a while. ...

You nailed this subject in several of your posts, IMO. What's your opinion of what GP did? Did you hear the press conference with him and Mack Rhodes?

Check this out from Yale. This is a long but really interesting article on a similar situation. TL;DR=Administrator's wife politely and respectfully questions Yale's halloween costume warnings (e.g. white kids don't dress up as black kids). College kids demand administrator's resignation due to hostile environment created by polite e-mail. Particularly angry protestor confronts administrator and refuses to accept any dialog that doesn't involve an immediate confession from administrator.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9IEFD_JVYd0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The guy standing up to the crowd was most likely a J-school student and he acquitted himself pretty well.

The woman about to start crying was amusing.

http://persephonemagazine.com/wp-con...loki-laugh.gif

His name is Tim Tai, and I believe he is a J-School student who also works/freelances for the Columbia Missourian.

The lady at the 2:15 mark is an administrator of some sort, and the woman at the very end is allegedly a professor.

I hope Tai/The Missourian file a formal complaint/press charges.

And sent out a tweet two days ago asking for the media to help push the story.

They should have kicked the shit out of that kid and smashed his camera ROFL

That'd be a hate crime.

The lady at 2:15 is the Director of Greek Life for the university, Janna Basler.

what a ****ing embarrassment of a teacher

The video of the protesters is frightening as they try to keep the student journalist with the camera away. If police were doing that to them at a protest, they'd be calling the police fascists. ****ing disgusting, and I'm a leftist son of a bitch.

I wonder if they'll break-down that tape on a Sunday show and put faces (and names) to some very wrong answers. It would be really nice for those kids to show up at interviews later in life and be asked if they, hopefully, got a little smarter along the way. Wow, very uneducated kids.

As for the stupid teacher, for her part she should have charges filed against her. She's liberal academia at it's best.

And kids beating-up on an Asian kid. Wow....that's some racist shit right there!

Thanks to Wolfey, instructor in my statistics doubled down on not actually teaching statistics to open up a dialogue about what happened today for 45 minutes of a 2 and a half hour class period.

Not like we could have used that class time for actually have going over course material. Worthless fat ****.

You could get the rest of the class to strike.

Fatist.

I'm already resigned myself to the fact I'm not going to pass the class because I haven't a clue what's going on and it's too late to drop so I've just pissed away time and money.


I'm so happy I could just jizz myself.

Ridiculous. I would not have been able to handle that situation as well as that kid, especially when they started threatening him and then pushing him back. He should be applauded for it.

Get your ass on youtube and/or Khan Academy and start googling instructional videos.

Nuke Columbia from orbit.

Those students are an embarrassment to this country. All of them can **** off.

Re: people not having issues with Loftin before planned parenthood, that's not what I've heard.

I've got friends in the business, j-school, CAFNR, and law schools. Every single one of them reported dissatisfaction with Loftin long before the PP deal.

Loftin was seen by many as a self-aggrandizing, ineffective chancellor long before this happened. And he has had trouble connecting with boosters.

He has established a pattern of making decisions without consulting anyone they effect (Greek system, departments, etc).

Even that one big black guy had to be held back by his friend saying, "Dont change his story." or something like that.

Mob mentality. If a group of people think its fun, it must be legal, right?

Man, that's a lot of stupid. Not sure how those ladies don't know better.

Garry Pinkel did the wrong thing by "supporting his players" in this ridiculous drama. The right thing to do as a coach or as a "father" of these young men would have been to teach them how to behave like civilized men instead of getting involved in this infantile tantrum poorly disguised as a protest, or at the very least to have refused to get involved.

In his press conference, Pinkel tried to distance himself from the protest by saying he was just supporting his kids like a "father" would without really even considering the protest's demands, but that's impossible to do, IMO. He had to know that he was throwing the University president, if not the reputation of the entire university, under the bus and he couldn't have really believed that he had to act, in this way, at this time, to save Jonathan Butler's life.

Terrible.

What a terrible mess.

CBS reported that one of the morons is a journalism professor.

Which one? The one that was calling for "muscle?" That's Katie Click, a communications professor (for now) at Mizzou. A journalism professor would know better. Hell, a communications professor should know better.

I can understand confusion there, I guess, as at most schools communications and journalism are part of the same program/school. At Mizzou, communications is where a lot of washouts from the journalism sequence end up.

Every faculty everywhere dislikes their administration.

Bob Dole knows Bowen, and he is a good man who has the university's best interest in mind. That isn't to say that he can't make mistakes, but to try to paint him as some sort of self-centered bastard is just off.

It wasn't clear whether they were referring to the redhead or the blonde who charged in and almost chest bumped the photog, then demanded he get out of HER personal space.

Melissa Click...

visit her Twitter at @melissaclick

And 2 days prior to the protest she sent out tweets asking for media coverage

Pinkel drilled it - just absolutely nailed it. Make that guy the University President for all I care.

He couldn't have walked the line any better. He came out early and issued a statement of support for his players (not a statement regarding the righteousness of the cause). And when it was said and done and he had an opportunity to expound, he said exactly what he should have - my support was about a players right to be a student.

And to that degree he's right. Students should be allowed to say whatever dumb shit they want to say - it's part of being a college student. At 20 yrs old with your first taste of freedom, you have no idea how the world works, you're easily inflamed and you've now become subject to as many little echo chambers as you could possibly want to be in (I guess they call those 'safe zones' now). Stupid protests are part of what college life is about and ultimately, football players are welcome to do so.

About the only thing I could have seen him do any differently was also say something encouraging players to express themselves and their ideas but to remember that freedom of expression doesn't create any immunity from consequences. But really, even that may simply have been more words than needed.

Pinkel had a lot to lose here and very little to gain. He needed to be extremely careful in how he handled it and in the end, he did a perfect job salvaging a situation that could've absolutely imploded on him.

I hate people.

The redhead is Click, I believe. Still inexcusable for a comm professor to make those kind of statements. I think I would have heard by now if any journalism profs were involved (that would be out, at least in Mizzou Mafia circles, by now if it had happened).

I don't know him personally, just sharing what I have heard.

I was surprised when I first heard a friend in the journalism school voicing displeasure with Loftin's leadership (And considering him ineffective), so I asked around with a few other faculty/staff I know. I was shocked that the displeasure with his leadership was unanimous. Pretty diverse group of opinions here, so for all of them to think he stinks shocked me.

I understand why the English dept. would be displeased - as part of his mission (as given by the BoC) to shore up AAU status, resources had to be shifted to departments that help make that happen.

But for privileged/important departments like the journalism and business school to have such a dim view of his leadership tells me it isn't just sour grapes at resources being shufffled around/away.

The one that really shocked me was hearing how disliked Loftin (and Wolfe, for that matter) is in the donor circles (And the person who shared that with me is someone who works in those circles as well, so it's not just smoke). Their ability to fundraise has been a big disappointment.

Whoops. Yeah, her actions are inexcusable, and she's going to find herself being asked to be successful elsewhere rather shortly.

It's the type of thing that can lead to a prof being relieved of duties mid-term.

Any adult that doesn't have her head up her own ass would have known better.

This is just so much self-congratulatory bullshit. So many coddled little snowflakes that can't stand thoughts/opinions that may differ from their own. And a hell of a lot of faculty that gets off on enabling that crap.

Academia has become a total shit show.

a typical tactic of someone who knows they are in the wrong is to shout down, talk over or otherwise prevent any objective review\rebuttal to their argument.

Is this mess and the quick resignation at Mizzou going to lead to many more mobs of ingrates and whiney disenfranchised entitled kids staging protests at the slightest whim to try and get people fired they disagree with at colleges?

I think this is sadly going to become a trend and I hope I am wrong.

My daughter applied to Mizzou last week. This week I told her we will most likely withdrawal the application.

I agree he had a lot to lose. He was in a tough spot. IMO, he went to far by lending his name to their cause (by tweeting his support) whether he personally agreed with the cause or not. He could have let the kids be kids on their own by simply not coming down hard on those who missed practices/meetings/games, etc.

I don't 'know' him socially by any means, I've just had an opportunity to speak with him a couple of times.

My off the cuff impression of him is the same as yours. And I think what corroborates that is that I do get the opposite impression with Wolfe. Moreover, Loftin was very well regarded at A&M.

That said, I don't have my finger on the pulse for fundraising at all. If he really was struggling with the donor base, that's a problem. Kim Anderson may have done some damage there, but not enough to make a massive dent I wouldn't think.

At worst, I'm going to chalk this up to a personality clash rather than a value judgment as to Loftin. Loftin's a Texan through and through. He doesn't wear his politics on his sleeve but that alone is enough to make you a mark here (if you're not a raging liberal in Columbia you pretty much get cast as Yosemite Sam). He has a bit of swagger to him but doesn't really carry himself with that eastern elitist air that tickles the fancy of most academics.

I don't think he's an ineffective leader, though it sounds as if his style simply didn't fit here. Sadly, I don't think I'm going to care for the style of leader that they do bring in because it sure looks like they're going to have to go with some new age 'players coach' that wants to make sure everyone plays nicely in the sandbox.

Why? Because of Kentucky and Vanderbilt?

If I'd have known that I could just hold my breath and pout to get what I wanted when I was on campus, they'd have never taken the goddamn Chik-Fil-A out of the student union.

"I WILL NOT EAT!!! UNTIL SOMEONE BRINGS MY ONE OF THOSE TASTY, TASTY CHICKEN SANDWICHES!!!"

Reminds me somewhat of the Louis CK miracle of flight bit. I'm not saying you shouldn't advocate for making things better, but you're in college, how far down is the man really pushing you?

I wouldn't make a knee-jerk reaction where my daughter's future is concerned. If she thinks a different school has a better program in her major, then yes, but if it's just because of this stuff, then let your emotions calm down first.

Good for you.

There are enough distractions in college as is. The garbage at Mizzou is just a national embarrassment.

Kim Anderson's two biggest supporters (and the two guys most responsible for him being hired, according to what I hear) were Wolfe and Loftin. Not sure if that was them attempting to appease donors or not, but they kind of forced Alden's hand there.

In addition to being not good for many reasons, this conflict is also very not good for Kim Anderson.

And that's one silver lining, at least.

If he does that, he risks a schism in-house. If the lockerroom splits, he's in trouble. By staying in front of it, he kept any potential disagreements low-key. The public face of the team now came out and united it.

Had he said nothing, it wouldn't have taken much for something seemingly benign (one of Scherer's tweets could have been enough) to take root and suddenly there's a perceived public split on MU's football team and you know the narrative will end up with the black kids vs. the white kids.

And yes, at that point all hell would've broken loose.

It just took one little blip on the throttle to straighten out the ship. If he says nothing, who knows where it goes? But at very little cost he made sure that team stayed completely intact.

Think of your alternatives. 1) He says nothing, the team unites and Wolfe/Loftin are still forced out. 2) He says nothing, the team splits, Loftin and Wolfe survive....for a week or two. But when the team you're trotting out there looks like 1940s Alabama and is getting embarassed on the field and in the national media - it's only a matter of time before Loftin and Wolfe get the axe at that point.

Pinkel gains nothing by being a martyr for two guys who had been railroaded...but who Pinkel couldn't save anyway. If I thought he could've kept this thing moving forward without simply being a draconian hardass, I'd have said he handled this poorly. But draconian hardass was the only real option that may have saved Wolfe/Loftin and at that point he'd have completely detonated his football program and their ability to bring in players.

Good advice.

FIRE WOLFE AND LOFTIN!!!

My god, those guys have been the biggest assholes since they got here. Arrogant, lazy, entitled sonsabitches who were ineffective leaders who took their management advice from Mussolini. One Nine Five Oh!

LMAO

Kim Anderson doesn't like it when guys where hoodies indoors or slouch in their chairs. He suspends black athletes for cussing and not going to class. There was only 1 white guy on the team last year and he didn't get suspended.

KIM ANDERSON IS A RACIST!! C'mon, 1950! The time to effectuate change is now!

I would be fine with them calling out Anderson's white privilege. I mean, clearly, admins who pushed for a guy that out of touch with today's kid are part of the problem, right?

I agree completely with your take on Pinkel. I've got friends from the j-school still scattered around the country (and from different parts of the country, originally) who speak very highly of the way Pinkel has handled himself in this situation.

And you know what? I think Pinkel honestly connects with his players a little here. Having been at Kent State directly after the violence there (and seeing him talk about how that protest affected his views on the Vietnam war/taking the government's word at face value), I think he has some common ground.

Read a fairly mediocre article with a great line - the problem with a mob is that once they get what they want, they tend to start attacking the insufficiently enthusiastic.

That's what happened here with Wolfe - look at all the rhetoric surrounding his ouster. He didn't respond loudly enough. Didn't respond quickly enough. It does appear that they realized mid-stream that they couldn't support their rhetoric about systematic racism so they just flipped the switch to 'he didn't hate racism enough'.

Fragile, fragile little snowflakes. Oh sure, most protesters these days are pretty much just protesting about things that 90% of the populace already hates....but that 90% might not hate it enough.

From an outsiders perspective I think Pinkel handled it fine. You really got to stand behind your players. It will also look good when you go into prospective recruits homes as well knowing coach has your back.

Academia world can go choke on a dick. I'm so glad at Missouri State we don't have an academia type running our school. Campus is booming, donors are giving at an all time, buildings are getting build, old ones getting renovated. Student population is growing. Government relations in Jeff City at all time. Relationship with Mizzou is strongest its ever been. And guess what academics are doing well. Just awesome to see and not in some fairy tale academia world.

If Pinkel didn't back his players it would cripple his future recruiting.

Whether he believes in the cause or not, it was a no-brainer.

Damn, I'm trying to maintain my leftist sympathies for righteous causes and shit, but these people are making it really, really hard to root for them:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It&#39;s typically white media who don&#39;t understand the importance of respecting black spaces.</p>&mdash; ConcernedStudent1950 (@CS_1950) <a href="https://twitter.com/CS_1950/status/663863466713714688">November 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you have a problem with us wanting to have our spaces that we create respected, leave!</p>&mdash; ConcernedStudent1950 (@CS_1950) <a href="https://twitter.com/CS_1950/status/663863620560814084">November 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

And
:banghead:

They really need to let someone with more PR savvy take over their account. This person comes off so poorly.

To be clear, they are in a public space, correct?

Nothing like using racism to fight racism

Yes. Exactly.

A public space that they've now "claimed" as their own. And we all need to respect that the space is now theirs until they deem it okay for us to enter it again.

Even though they've been basically begging for media attention and publicity for the cause and are engaged in an act that is going to bring publicity. Now that the public sentiment is swaying against them and there's blowback, though, we have to respect their desire for privacy in a public space.

I laughed (and totally agree). This is going from sad, to out of control, to WTF pretty quickly.

Just remember not to judge people that oppose your opinion because of the small % of idiots.

It's hard to believe that college educated people can be that stupid, though.

It's not even the main quad - they're on the damn lawn space between the Alumni center and the law school - i.e. the spot I walked several thousand ****ing times to get from my car to class over 3 years. We'd go out there to throw the ball around and work of steam during finals weeks and especially right before big papers (which is what the 1Ls are up to right now; their final writing assignment is due before Thanksgiving break and that paper is a stress-inducing nightmare).

I'd be pissed beyond words if I still went to school down there.

:clap: -

What a ****ing joke of a movement.

Kind of a reach, here, but do you think this whole thing actually helps Mizzou Athletics get rid of the racist label St Louis has had on them for years?

I will never understand how the hell people didn't see what this was the moment they read the list of demands.

Demanding that the President of the entire University of Missouri system "acknowledge his white privilege" is batty as shit.

Did they really think this was just some well-meaning group of dissenters? No, this is a fanatic fringe group. It's the ideological polar opposite of the group that went around campus and stuck crosses into the lawn for every child aborted in Missouri. Jonathan Butler is no more righteous than Brother Jed was when he spent a decade proselytizing on Speakers Circle every day (and Brother Jed was batshit but at least funny).

Having strong convictions does nothing to make you in the right. People strongly believe (and are willing to die for) crazy shit every day. People were so caught up in how much this kid seemed to care about his cause that they didn't look past the surface of the cause itself to see if it made any sense. It didn't take more than a cursory examination to see that this is just wildly overblown inflammatory horseshit.

Sadly, the media gave them the momentum they needed and now they've fully bought into their own narrative.

Please please please keep this movement in the spotlight. They'll cut their own legs out from under themselves in spectacular fashion.

You ought to realize if you don't already that your feelings towards persons of color isn't masked by your vocabulary. Holy shit this is transparent.