There are several problems that are common on many college campuses in the United States. Chief among these issues is racism, and it comes from people that should be looked at as authority figures in the school community. Just recently, University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe resigned because of a domino effect that began with instances of racial vandalism. What may have started out as an issue that could have been contained and eradicated turned into a campus-wide ordeal. Students believed that protesting was the best way to show their feelings toward this situation, and then following this, there was an announcement that said faculty members weren’t going to show up for work because of what was going on. Even with all of this going on, Wolfe was not tipped off by the fact that all the signs were pointing out the door for him.

The main issue that tipped off the president of the university that he should leave was the influence of the student-athletes and, especially, the black football players. A major source of revenue for the school is its football team and the fact that they play in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). While the student population at Mizzou is just seven percent black, the football population at the school is 69 percent black. In solidarity with their Mizzou peers, all of the players demanded that Wolfe step down from his position as president of the university or they were not going to play in their game against Brigham Young University. Financially, most people would think that the decision to be made would be to let the president of the university keep his job because he would be paid the rest of his base salary of $459,000 for that year. But if Mizzou forfeited their game against BYU, the National Collegiate Athletic Association would fine the program $1,000,000. So, the athletes that are sometimes believed to powerless had the school in the palms of their hands when it came to this decision.

In my opinion, Wolfe should have been removed from the position long before these allegations had surfaced. Wolfe’s tenure had a lot of issues that ranged from racial tensions to cost-cutting moves that included health insurance for graduate assistants. He constantly refused to take action about obvious campus issues and said at the beginning of his tenure at Mizzou that he was going to run the university like a tech company. Well, guess what Tim Wolfe? People, especially college students and faculty, are not computer programs and you can’t just push aside issues that are important on campus such as racism. These sorts of issues need to be worked out before students, athletes and especially faculty get involved in protests and strikes. I am glad that Wolfe resigned from his position. It was a long time coming.

 

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