On May 23, the University of Missouri posted a video vaguely affirming intentions to be more welcoming after a destructive year of identity politics took its toll on the Columbia campus.
The academic year’s highlights included football players boycotting their own team in solidarity with protesters; a since-fired communications professor threatening a photojournalist; and administrators—including the president of the university system—resigning, per students’ demands.
Leading into the summer, the university sees its student body diminished by 1,500, multiple dorms left empty, and a budget deficit in the
tens of millions of dollars come September.
This new video gives a clickable human face to the school’s ongoing “diversity audit,” a program intended to crack down on the sorts of alleged offenses that first ignited the campus protests in November 2015—it will be a “comprehensive assessment and inventory of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, practices, programs, and procedures,” according to an email from the four university chancellors and acting system president.
In the video, the same five administrators, lined up like a dour a cappella group, take turns intoning their hopes and dreams for Mizzou’s future. Per the advice of PR-minded diversity consultants, we can assume, two men of color have the first, “We imagine…,” and last words, “A welcoming culture… a better future for all Missourians.”
By the numbers, a more “welcoming culture” should be right around the corner. Dwindling enrollment, after all, means that much more attention for each and every precious snowflake.
