University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe announces his resignation from office Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, during a UM System Board of Curators meeting in University Hall at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. Wolfe has been under fire for his handling of race complaints that had threatened to upend the football season and moved one student to go on a hunger strike. (Nick Schnelle/Columbia Daily Tribune via AP)
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday amid criticism of his handling of student complaints about race and discrimination.
President Tim Wolfe said Monday that his resignation is effective immediately. The announcement came at a special meeting of the university system’s governing body, the Board of Curators.
The complaints came to a head over the weekend when at least 30 Black football players announced they would not participate in team activities until Wolfe was removed or stepped down.
For months, Black student groups have complained of racial slurs and other slights on the overwhelmingly White flagship campus of the state’s four-college system. Frustrations flared during a homecoming parade Oct. 10 when Black protesters blocked Wolfe’s car, and he did not get out and talk to them. They were removed by police.
Black members of the football team joined the outcry on Saturday night. By Sunday, a campus sit-in had grown in size, graduate student groups planned walkouts and politicians began to weigh in.