Lawmakers speak out about Click’s firing and UM funding cuts
Several Missouri state legislators have been calling for Asst. Professor Melissa Click to be fired since a video showing her intimidating a student journalist by calling for “muscle” went viral and gained national attention. Four months later, the UM Board of Curators announced Click no longer has a job.
“Any time you have a professor that behaves in a way that’s so contradictory to the very mission of the university, I mean, those actions have to have consequences,” said Rep. Caleb Rowden, a Republican from Columbia.
On Tuesday, the House budget committee voted to cut more than $8 million from the UM budget to show its disapproval of how UM has handled Click. In the cuts, the committee specifically mentioned not funding Click’s salary.
Rowden is on the budget committee. He said the announcement of Click’s firing could help sway lawmakers to reverse the decision to cut UM funds.
“A desire for some of us to reverse those and something that we’re working toward that end this certainly doesn’t hurt that reality. I think it speaks to the fact that the university’s serious about turning this thing around and they understand that there are issues,” said Rowden.
Rep. Jake Hummel, the House minority leader, put out a statement about Click’s firing. He said “Now that the board has acted, House Democrats are hopeful the misguided attempts to punish the university and its students will lose traction.”
Rep. Chuck Basye, a Republican from Rocheport, also spoke out against funding cuts to UM but has always called for Click to be fired.
“This is a big step in the right direction, like I said, hopefully this will smooth things out and we can get to moving in a good way instead of focusing on all this negativity,” said Basye.
Both representative Basye and Rowden said they’re going to do what they can to get the funding cuts reversed.
The full Missouri Senate and House will take up the funding cut issue later. The Missouri constitution mandates legislators approve a final budget in early May.
