Missouri interim president discusses racial discord, future

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The unrest that rocked the University of Missouri-Columbia campus last fall was part of a racial conflict that has existed in Missouri and the nation for centuries and still is evident on campuses across the country, interim president Michael Middleton said Tuesday.

The Columbia campus is expecting a $30 million drop in tuition because of fewer freshmen enrolling this fall, said Middleton, who added that he understood why parents might hesitate to send their children there if they thought it was in "disarray."

The October and November protests, which led to the resignation of former system president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, were a "perfect storm" that continued longstanding racial conflict, said Middleton, an African-American who grew up in segregated Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s.

The American Association of University Professors placed the university on its censure list Saturday because of it, which essentially means the university is guilty of violating academic due process in firing Click.