MU students react to firing of Melissa Click

The University of Missouri campus stayed peaceful Thursday after the UM System Board of Curators announced its decision to fire former professor Melissa Click.

ABC 17 News talked to students across campus to get their reaction to the announcement. Most students said they agreed with the board’s decision.

“There are several of us who were concerned with the actions our administration was taking and the way Melissa Click was, frankly, being protected,” Victoria Stroup, MU sophomore and writer for campusreform.org, said.

Not everyone on the MU campus was in support of Click’s termination. Thursday afternoon, the Mizzou Legion of Black Collegians tweeted, “Words cannot express our appreciation for all that Melissa Click risked to protect the students fighting to make the University better.”

But freshman student Matthew Gibbs did not agree.

“My opinion is that she deserved to be fired after the video surfaced, Gibbs said. “When a journalist is trying to take picture of a historic event, they should be allowed to. And a communications teacher should know that.”

Stroup said she thought the board’s decision was a start to the change needed on campus.

“I think this is a step in the right direction,” Stroup said. “As long as Melissa Click was employed here, our degrees were being devalued.”

“I think it’s just kind of better to move on,” MU graduate student Ashley Szatala said. “She can go maybe rebuild her career and brand somewhere else where she won’t have such backlash.”

ABC 17 News also reached out to Concerned Student 1950 to get their reaction to Click’s termination, but the group has not responded.