We first aired this podcast about race at Mizzou last November, just after a series of protests at the University of Missouri's flagship campus led to the resignation of its system president, Tim Wolfe.
At the time, the students were concerned about several racial incidents on campus. One student went on a hunger strike while others supported him with protests and other acts of civil disobedience. The situation gained national attention when Mizzou's football team threatened to go on strike if Wolfe didn't resign.
In the end, not only did Wolfe resign, but so did Mizzou's Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin -- and on the same day. Loftin had been under scrutiny for a variety of issues, including lack of racial sensitivity and inattention to claims of sexual assault.
Several months later, the repercussions from November's upheaval are still being felt. The University of Missouri Board of Curators, which seats nine people, made the news recently when two of its members resigned within days of each other. Both members were African American, leaving only whites on the board.
Also, Melissa Click, a professor who grabbed national headlines during the November protests at Mizzou, was officially suspended from her post. Click was caught on video yelling at a student journalist to go away, calling for some "muscle" to remove the reporter.
All this is to say that the issue of how Mizzou -- and the University of Missouri system in general — deals with race hasn't gone away. That's why we decided to rebroadcast this episode, in which we ask one fundamental question: Why wasn't race an issue for MU administrators?
