Former Missouri professor Melissa Click fired over role in protests files appeal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former University of Missouri assistant communications professor is appealing her firing last month over her role last year in a race-related student protest, suggesting that her ouster was political.

Melissa Click, in a statement Tuesday, insisted her Feb. 25 dismissal by the university system's governing curators was unfair by failing to follow the normal, on-campus procedures for reacting to faculty misconduct. More than 100 state lawmakers, mostly Republican, had called for her removal.

"In their decision to terminate my employment, the curators bowed to conservative voices that seek to tarnish my stellar 12-year record at MU," Click wrote. "Instead of disciplining me for conduct that does not 'meet expectations for a university faculty member,' the curators are punishing me for standing with students who have drawn attention to the issue of overt racism at the University of Missouri."

Click, whose firing followed her suspension in January, added that the governing board "is using me as a scapegoat to distract from larger campus issues, but their termination of my employment will not remedy the environment of injustice that persists at MU."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/usworld/former-missouri-professor-melissa-click-fired-over-role-in-protests/article_be50afee-f3d4-5184-a28e-119521d1c503.html