Bullies at University of Missouri (Endorsed by Marquette President and Provost)

From Heatstreet:

Just days after protesters successfully toppled the University of Missouri’s president and chancellor last fall, a white student forwarded her professor a disturbing tweet. “#Mizzou black students need to stop protesting and start killing,” it said. “The white supremacy made it clear they ain’t hearing it.”

The ominous tweet had already received 16 retweets and 3 likes. The professor forwarded the message onto interim administration and the university’s police, adding that he was unsure whether the person who had sent the tweet was a student. But, he wrote, his student was scared to come to class.

To understand what was going on behind the scenes as the University of Missouri was rocked by protests during October and November of 2015, Heat Street and National Review requested access to email correspondence from key leaders at the school. The request yielded 7,400 pages of records.

News coverage at the time focused on black students’ claims of pervasive racism, pointing to several troublesome incidents as evidence of a bigoted culture on campus. But a look at the email correspondence of the university’s administrators and faculty members during the crisis reveals another side of the unrest: how protesters’ belligerence left many students, faculty and parents fearful of violence and concerned for their safety.

Here is some of what we found:

On Oct. 7, as the protests had started to pick up steam, a student wrote to the chancellor describing her encounter with a group of Black Lives Matter supporters.

“Everyone has freedom of speech and expression,” she wrote, “but this was a large group of people. I know I’m not alone in saying that I felt very unsafe and targeted when I encountered them,” describing “people screaming at me from the sidewalk.” She wrote that “all lives matter and discrimination should be fought against,” but she feared “that group brought more division, hostility and discrimination than that one man [yelling racial slurs] could have.”

On Nov. 9, the vice president for human resources, Betsy Rodriguez, wrote to Missouri’s president, Tim Wolfe, saying that she thought he needed to see some videos being circulated on Twitter under the hash tag #ConcernedStudent1950.
One video shows a protestor singling out people on campus, shouting, “If you’re uncomfortable, I did my job.” In the background, other protestors shout “power,” raising their fists.

“There are at least 2 [such Twitter videos] from Griffiths society today, and 2 from the dining halls (one of those – Plaza 900) included visiting high school students,” Rodriguez wrote. “The protestors are increasing in aggression and disruption. These are pretty scarey [sic].”

A conversation later that day between Rodriguez and Michael Kateman, the university’s director of internal communications, raised other “collective thoughts” on the protestors’ behavior.

“Even students not involved in the protests are getting agitated, fearful and concerned,” their notes say, pointing out an incident where outsiders drove two hours to join the protests on the University of Missouri’s campus. “The protestors are willing to interrupt non-related events to protest. …. Our concern is that the longer we wait to have mtg [to address the situation], the more we risk violence. The longer we wait, the greater the risk of violence.”

“Many of the students in [protest group #ConcernedStudent1950] are motivated by anger and don’t seem to have a plan of action even if their demands are met,” the student wrote. “Many of them don’t have a plan of contingency,” adding that “preparations need to be made in the case the student [hunger sriker] passes and Mizzou is threatened with rioting and senseless violence. While I have not gotten the sense that they would go after your residence, it could be a target despite your public efforts.”

President Wolfe and Chancellor Bowen Loftin caved to students’ demands and resigned on Nov. 9, effectively ending the crisis on campus. But the events of last fall have continued to haunt the school, which has seen its fundraising and enrollment plummet.

The email exchanges we reviewed also show impatience with frequent disruptions to academics at the school during the protests. Several parents and students wrote to complain about classes being repeatedly canceled in response to the demonstrations.

A day after Mizzou’s high-profile resignations, a university employee wrote to Wolfe describing her frustration after seeing the video where Melissa Click, a communications professor, called for “muscle” against a student reporter.

“My fear is that things are going to get out of hand and something very bad is going to happen,” she wrote. “My husband is a Sgt. For the University Police and he is having to be in the middle of this mess and having someone like Melissa Click do everything in her power to incite a riot will make things go from bad to worse. I normally take walks around the campus a couple of times a day but currently am afraid to do so because I am white. My daughter goes to school at Mizzou, has some night classes, and she is now afraid to walk around campus and go to class because she is white.”

That same day, a parent wrote to the heads of the university on behalf of her daughter, who she said was so frightened she was trying to transfer out of the university.

“My white female student is being mobbed on her way to class and shouted at while being pushed claiming she’s a racist solely because of the color of her skin. … In the last 2 days she’s had 3 cancelled classes so her teachers could participate in this nonsense. So we’re paying for our child’s teachers to protest instead of educate?” she wrote.

Administrators had repeatedly called for students to confront racism and engage in “an ongoing dialogue” about “moving the UM system forward.” On Nov. 10, one student wrote to the now-ousted chancellor expressing frustration about the results of such a conversation.

“I tried to foster peaceful, civilized discussion with a few peers,” the student wrote. “What I received was a combination of personal and racial attacks, with direct quotes such as ‘You can’t have an opinion on this because you are white,’ ‘You have no right to speak,’ and ‘Get the f*** out of the lounge.’ I will not fill out a bias report on this because it has been made perfectly clear to me by both faculty and students that my skin color apparently gives me immunity from racial harassment, and I can only be treated as the aggressor in these situations.”

On the intellectual level of the protests:

Still don't understand how #ConcernedStudent1950 feels? Maybe you need a closer look. Check it out. @mutv23 pic.twitter.com/GlPUqa0DlL

— Danny Konstantinovic (@Dannykons) November 6, 2015

✊🏿 RT @AnuragRC: The #ConcernedStudent1950 protest at @mucampusdining Plaza 900 earlier today. pic.twitter.com/2Y94lo1JVf

— A♭ (@AlexDonAudio) November 8, 2015

While the media were concentrating on the protestors, Missouri students unimpressed with the protests expressed their dissent on Yik Yak.

And who sided with the bullies at Missouri? A small group of Marquette students. And Marquette President Michael Lovell and Provost Daniel Myers.

Those that gathered were of various races and included faculty, staff, students and Milwaukee community members. University President Michael Lovell, Provost Daniel Myers and the mother of Dontre Hamilton, an unarmed black man who was killed by a white Milwaukee Police Officer, were also in attendance.

Lovell said he went to show support for the students and community. Myers added it was a proud moment to be a part of Marquette.

“It is well-timed since we are in the middle of Marquette’s campus climate study,” Myers said. “We are making big steps. These are awareness-raising moments.”

Awareness of what? How university administrators cower before leftist demonstrators, including those with little support among the general student body and even less among alumni?

Yes.

Free Speech: Under Attack at Marquette as Well as Missouri

From Wisconsin Watchdog, an article by Matt Kittle based on an interview we did with WIBA in Madison.

Marquette’s attempt to fire this blogger is simply part of a larger pattern of national academic intolerance.

Missouri Protests Based on Fake Incidents

From the Daily Wire:

Show us the evidence of systemic racism at Mizzou.

So far, it doesn’t exist.

According to press accounts, four specific incidents drove the ouster of the liberal president of University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe. Three of the four have no evidence to support them, and the remaining incident was rightly investigated by Wolfe’s administration.

Here are the crucial racial incidents that brought down the top official at a major publicly-funded university.

The First N-Word Incident. On September 12, student government president Payton Head alleged that a red pickup truck of young white people slowed and began screaming the n-word at him. Head posted the story on social media along with a litany of supposed slurs experienced by various groups of Americans (“Many of you are so privileged that you’ll never know what it feels like to be a hijab-wearing Muslim woman…You don’t have to think about being transgender and worrying about finding a restroom…”). He then told the press, “this story is not just something that happens here. It’s not a Mizzou issue. It’s a societal issue.” He added, “This happened to me, but it happens all the time, not only here, but everywhere.” According to the campus police, the incident happened near campus, not on it, and the Columbia Police Department did not receive a report on the incident from Head. In other words, other than Head’s social media post, there’s no evidence the incident occurred.

The Second N-Word Incident. On October 5, members of the Legion of Black Collegians were confronted by a drunk white man who called them the n-word. The group issued a public statement: “At about 12:45 AM, we noticed an obviously intoxicated white male staggering down Conley Ave. on the sidewalk…while still on the phone he says ‘These n*****s are getting aggressive with me.’” Members of the campus administration and the police received reports, and the young man in question is reportedly living off-campus and is under investigation. The administration responded with mandatory diversity training on October 8.

The Car Bump. On October 10, Concerned Student 1950 protesters blocked the homecoming parade, and attempted to confront Wolfe by surrounding his car. Graduated student Jonathan Butler said, “We disrupted the parade specifically in front of Tim Wolfe because we need him to get our message.” Butler then alleged that the car had hit one of the students (tape shows no such thing) and went on a hunger strike. Wolfe apologized for asking the police to remove the protesters.

The Feces Swastika. On October 24, officials supposedly found a swastika drawn in poop on the floor and wall in the bathroom. Resident Halls Association president Bill Donley said, “After this event, it has become clear to me that the inclusivity of our residence halls has been threatened.” But according to Sean Davis at The Federalist, “No evidence of the alleged incident…has ever been made publicly available.” Donley refused to respond to requests, and other RHA staffers said they hadn’t seen the poop swastika. There are no public photographs of the swastika. The University of Missouri has now been hit with a public records request by The Federalist.

So there you have it. Four racial incidents, three of them evidenceless, and one of them taken care of by the administration.

Obviously something was rotten at Mizzou, but it isn’t systemic racism by the administration.

Of course, none of this really matters. The entire point is to bully university administrations, and get more politically correct initiatives on campus (“diversity training,” more campus bureaucrats to pander to politically correct groups).

This is all made worse by affirmative action, which admits students who aren’t really qualified and thus struggle academically. Add to this professors and campus bureaucrats who pamper and pander to minorities, and encourage a sense of grievance, and you get a bunch of bullies who seek a sense of power in the hothouse that is campus politics.

[Update]

The Federalist has turned up evidence that the poop swastika actually existed. Of course, a swastika would seem to be more an expression of hatred of Jews, rather than blacks.

Further, a real swastika might have been yet another of the hoax hate crimes that have proliferated on college campuses.

[Further Update]

The Federalist has been all over this. It seems that the key suspect is a student who “has also been reported to have made anti-Semitic remarks to the members of a Jewish fraternity.” This suspect has not been (and probably will not be) charged, but this seems more an anti-Semitic than an anti-black incident.

University of Missouri Student Activist: Cast Aside First Amendment

Fascists: Leftist Students at University of Missouri Impede Press Photographer

It’s a stunning display of arrogance and intolerance.

And these are the kind of people, remember, who got the President of their university fired.


[Update]
Most people would consider this behavior unacceptable. But not the student activists, who care little about press freedom. And not one student activist who talked to MSNBC:

Naomi Collier, a student activist at the University of Missouri, defended the treatment of a journalist who was attacked while trying to cover the unfolding events on campus.

On Monday, Tim Tai, a student journalist contracted with ESPN trying to cover the protests on campus, was accosted by the school’s Greek Life director and protesters.

When Tai approached students in the protest to get their opinion he was told he needed to go. The situation escalated and one protester asked for “some muscle” to remove Tai.

Collier told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell it was a “peaceful protest” and Tai was just a victim of the “backlash” from “fed up” students. Collier also said the student journalist was “insensitive” to the “feelings and emotions that [were] present at that time.”

“Is there a way to get back to some sort of civil discourse here or there is still so much tension,” Mitchell asked Collier.

“Definitely,” Collier said. “I do believe that we are getting back to that civil discourse. I believe the whole thing was civil. At no point did anything get violent, everything was a peaceful protest, even with the camp-out. There was nothing that got, in my opinion, out of control. The students are fed up.”

“As far as the media’s concerned, at times they can be overwhelming and insensitive to the feelings and emotions that are present at that time. I think what that photographer experienced was kind of the backlash of that, and again, he may have just been ignorant or uneducated about how that particular group of students were feeling at the time and again.”

More Yik Yak: Missouri Students Show Resentment Toward Race Hustlers

From MSNBC (who doubtless think all these posts are terrible), a compilation of Yik Yak posts critical of the racial activists (and their white allies) who forced the resignation of the school’s president.

According to the network:

MSNBC took a look at Yik Yak, which uses geolocation to display messages in a certain area or around a certain university, and viewed messages posted by users at the University of Missouri campus. As of noon EST, these were some of the most popular messages on Yik Yak at the University of Missouri campus. Popularity is determined by users voting up or down on messages they like or dislike. The number of upvotes is displayed to the right of each message.

Here are the most popular ones, but read the rest.

One can see why campus race, gender and gay hustlers would like Yik Yak shut down, or at least allow posters to be identified so they can be punished for their politically incorrect attitudes.

This is social media giving a voice to the students who are ignored by the media, ignored by university administrations, and derided and demeaned if they should speak out openly.