Leaders don’t release details after meeting at MU

The UM Board of Curators met Wednesday afternoon on University of Missouri campus. The meeting got underway at University Hall at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday and lasted for more than four hours.

Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed showed up at the meeting in hopes of addressing the board. Senator Nasheed’s attendance came after speculation circulated online Wednesday that curators would discuss the future ofChancellor R. Bowen Loftin at the University of Missouri.

Wednesday morning, Rep. Caleb Jones, (R)-Columbia, tweeted the board was trying to fire the chancellor for his role in ending some contracts with Planned Parenthood, including physician privileges which will end abortions at the Columbia clinic.

Nasheed said she believed it had something to do with Loftin’s comments about racism on campus.

Nasheed said she was not allowed to address the board in executive session. Board president Donald Cupps told her the curators were not going to discuss Loftin Wednesday.

Senator Nasheed said although she has disagreed with Loftin on issues in the past, she believes he is moving the MU campus forward in a productive and aggressive way.

“But what I don’t want to happen is the firing of the chancellor,” Nasheed said. “I think he’s doing an outstanding job. And I think at the end of the day, the racial diversity sensitivity training is something that is most definitely needed here.”

“I do believe that it’s the right thing to do at a time when racial relations is at an all time low,” Nasheed said.

Nasheed also said she thinks it would be political suicide for the board to fire the chancellor.

Loftin became chancellor of the University of Missouri on February 1, 2014. He previously served as the 24th President of Texas A&M University from 2010 to 2014.

If the board took a final vote on a personnel issue, it has 72 hours to inform the public of its decision.