Missouri president Tim Wolfe issued a statement Sunday responding to outraged students at the university, many of whom are student-athletes who have pledged to strike until he is removed or resigns from his post.
Jeff Rosen of the Kansas City Star published the entire statement on his Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/jeff_rosen88/status/663440576935694336/photo/1
There are a couple of issues here that could be received poorly by those who have taken issue with Wolfe’s response to the issues that have sparked the outrage.
First, nobody’s going to be happy about the targeted date of April, 2016 to implement changes. Secondly, he didn’t really say anything at all in this statement other than, “we’re working on stuff.”
Students are concerned about events that have transpired around and on campus the past month-plus. They issued a list of demands, which Wolfe sort of addressed in his statement but only barely.
Over 50 of Missouri’s football players are African-American, and they, along with other student-athletes, have pledged to strike until Wolfe steps down or is removed by the school. They received the support of head coach Gary Pinkel on Sunday after the coach tweeted out his solidarity with his players.
Based on the half-hearted statement issued by Wolfe, this isn’t a situation that is going to be resolved quickly unless the university makes a move to remove him and addresses the student concerns immediately.
Waiting until April of next year just won’t cut it.