Who could have imagined that protests over perceived slights would lead to a drop in admissions? Only everyone.
At the University of Missouri last fall, students protested alleged incidents of racism. The “incidents” were unsubstantiated claims from students, and at least one hoax. The protesters forced the president to resign because he didn’t sufficiently acknowledge their feelings over the shooting death of Michael Brown the previous year.
Also, the president didn’t immediately jump to condemn the unsubstantiated claims of racism — at least not to the protesters’ liking. At one point a popular professor resigned after a backlash from protesters because he refused to cancel an exam for them (which tells you something about their real motives). The school refused his resignation.
Lo and behold, the childish actions of the school’s protesters has led to a sharp drop in the number of freshmen enrolling in the school. There will be 1,500 fewer students at Mizzou next year, which will cause a budget shortfall of $32 million.
“Dear university community,” wrote interim chancellor Hank Foley in an email to the school. “I am writing to you today to confirm that we project a very significant budget shortfall due to an unexpected sharp decline in first-year enrollments and student retention this coming fall. I wish I had better news.”
The revenue shortfall has prompted several cuts for the school, which will significantly dampen some of the demands of the protesters — including hiring more diverse faculty.
Mizzou will impose a 5 percent cut “to all annual recurring general revenue budgets.” The university will also implement “an across-the-board hiring freeze for all units on campus.” The school will also cancel its annual merit increase program for the year, but will still provide promotional increases for faculty.
“While these budget challenges will affect our ability to deliver teaching, research and service to Missourians in the short term, we also know that we have survived other stressors of this kind before,” Foley wrote. “We will endeavor as a campus to make decisions on these reductions that will least hamper our ability to deliver our core mission. We also will seek to build on the strengths of this university as we move forward.”
Fox Sport’s Clay Travis “congratulated” the protesters for their work to harm the university.
“You — in conjunction with your idiot football players who also went on strike — have nearly killed a great university over a poop swastika, an alleged off-campus racial slur that may not have even happened, and one racial slur on campus from a non-student in the past year,” Travis wrote.
He also brought up Melissa Click, the former professor who was fired for assaulting a student journalist and threatening him with additional “muscle.” Click continues to play the victim, having claimed she believed the journalist may have had a gun (so her solution was to bring other students around into harm’s way?) and suggesting that she was fired only because conservatives tried to ruin her reputation.
Note to Click: The video of you threatening a journalist and your delusional defenses after are what ruined your reputation.
Mizzou’s dramatic drop in admissions stands in contrast to Oklahoma Wesleyan University, whose president stood up to special snowflakes at his school and saw an “uptick” in admissions and some new donors.
Neither school wants to directly credit their responses to complaints as the reason for the change in admissions. But it’s hard not to see a correlation.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
