Remember how the University of Missouri almost shut down last year, over a total of four (initially reported as three) minor incidents?
Remember how the school’s football team was ready to boycott their games?
Remember how UM’s President, who had zero to do with any of the incidents, but had his car surrounded by intimidating students over them, apologized and resigned?
Well, that certainly solved UM’s problems.
Or did it?
First, let’s review the incidents.
-A swastika, and the word “heil” was put up, in charcoal, on a dorm stairwell wall. A freshman eventually pled guilty to doing this and was given two years’ probation (in my opinion he should have been tossed out of the school).
-The President of the Student Association, who is Black, was walking down the street – off campus – when someone in a passing pickup truck yelled “nigger” at him. (Stupid and racist, but what does this have to do with the school?)
-The Legion of Black Collegians were rehearsing for an event, when a drunk walked by and called them “niggers”. The man did not appear to be a student. (This has nothing to do with the school iteself, but it should be noted that the group being slurred is, by choice, racially exclusionary).
-A half year after the first swastika incident, another swastika was smeared, in human waste, on the floor and/or wall of a dorm bathroom.
That’s it. Those four incidents – one of which was not even on campus – over a half year period, in a school of almost 35,000 students.
Suppose I told you that, in a city of 35,000 people there were 3 incidents – two anti-Semitic, one anti-Black – and one other anti-Black incident occurring while a city resident was out of town, every 6 months? Would you call the city racist and anti-Semitic? or would you marvel at how little in the way of racism/anti-Semitism there was? I know I’d be in the latter group.
But not the 35,000-student University of Missouri. There, it was treated as a major-league scourge.
So how did the actions of the students and the cave-in of the administration work out?
Excerpted from Rick Moran’s article at American Thinker:
The school announced a 5 percent cut “to all annual recurring general revenue budgets” and an “across-the-board hiring freeze for all units on campus.” The dorm closures are only the latest cost-cutting measures.
The school announced the closures on its Residents’ Online Access to Rooms website. The two closed dorms contained Freshmen Interest Groups, special communities for first-year students housed within the dorms, which the university said could be available in other dorms.
“Due to an expected decrease in the number of students needing housing at Mizzou this year, Residential Life will not be offering space in Respect or Excellence Halls at this time,” the university announced. “This is an effort to ensure we are using our halls in the most efficient manner, keeping our costs as low as possible so we can provide our students with the best possible living environments at an affordable cost.”
Elsewhere in the article it is reported that, in addition to 1,500 fewer incoming freshmen than expected, the school has lost upperclassmen as well (presumably more than they usually would).
This has put a gap of something like $32 million dollars in the school’s budget, which necesssitated the 5% budget cut. I’m guessing that won’t be enough either.
Will the same students who marched over those four incidents – one every month and a half – be marching over the loss of budget their actions almost certainly have caused?
It wouldn’t surprise me a bit. Making demands is far easier than dealing with the realities of the world.
