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AAUP: U of Missouri Violated Rights of Professor Melissa Click
Washington Free Beacon ^ | May 20, 2016

Posted on 05/22/2016 8:56:24 AM PDT by MarvinStinson

The AAUP has dealt a blow to the University of Missouri by concluding that the firing of Melissa Click violated her rights.

The American Association of University Professors said the university’s board of curators, which voted by a 4-2 decision to fire Click after months of controversy regarding her conduct during student protests, “violated basic standards of academic due process.”

Click became a household name after a video surfaced showing her blocking a student videographer from filming near a tent city set up on the Missouri campus in November. For more than a week, the tent city had been home to members of Concerned Student 1950, a group seeking “the liberation of all black collegiate students.”

The original video shows a human wall composed of students, faculty, and alumni formed around the camp to keep the media from advancing. When videographer Mark Schierbecker approached Click, the communications professor grabbed Schierbecker’s camera and told him he needed to leave, saying, “I need some muscle over here!”

Another video later surfaced showing Click berating members of the Columbia Police Department. She joined members of Concerned Student 1950 to block former UM System President Tim Wolfe’s car at the University’s homecoming parade, and when told to leave, responded to the police with, “Get your fucking hands off me!”

Neither Click nor the AAUP attempt to defend her actions, which Click has publicly apologized for more than once, but the AAUP finding suggests the board “set a dangerous precedent that threatens the security of position and, consequently, the academic freedom of all faculty members at the University of Missouri.”

Will Creeley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said he agrees.

“FIRE is concerned any time a university doesn’t follow published procedure,” he said. He believes, however dismal the University of Missouri’s reputation, the administration has a chance to redeem itself.

Creeley also agrees with the AAUP’s findings, that the Missouri State Legislature, which questioned Melissa Click’s research on 50 Shades of Grey and Lady Gaga, played a role in her firing. Over 100 Republicans issued a joint letter demanding her dismissal, and the Legislature also denied MU a statewide funding increase after the University did not take action regarding Click.

Click has not publicly commented on the AAUP’s findings, but said in an earlier statement endorsing the investigation that she was fired “for standing with students who have drawn attention to the issue of overt racism… The board of curators is using me as a scapegoat to distract from larger campus issues.”

Interim Chancellor Hank Foley declined to comment on the matter. Members of the board of curators, however, issued a statement saying they continue to stand behind their actions.

According to the statement, “The Board respectfully disagrees with the AAUP’s conclusion that academic freedom is threatened. The University will continue to hold our faculty in high regard and to respect the policies and procedures in place to ensure academic freedom and due process.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aaup; education; melissaclick; missouri
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To: MarvinStinson

What about a male student’s right to due process when accused of sexual assault, especially when it’s a false accusation? I guess that doesn’t matter.


21 posted on 05/22/2016 9:51:25 AM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: MarvinStinson

A clear list of people who should be unemployed. No University should hire this trash to brainwash their children and no state should fund any institution that tolerates them.


22 posted on 05/22/2016 9:56:18 AM PDT by Steamburg (Other people's money is the only language a politician respects; starve the bastards)
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To: MarvinStinson

When will they learn? It is impermissible to fire leftist fanatics. Nonviolent liberal academics can be terminated occasionally if they become redundant or embarrassingly get caught in a three way match with a 10 year old and a dog but Leftist Fanatics? they can do no wrong.


23 posted on 05/22/2016 10:19:59 AM PDT by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali soli o feccia.)
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To: MarvinStinson

Re: her firing: If she can’t take a joke, screw her!


24 posted on 05/22/2016 10:28:20 AM PDT by Strac6 (The primaries are only the semi-finals. ALL THAT MATTERS IS DEFEATING HILLARY IN NOVEMBER.)
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To: Gaffer

Or, “How many regiments has the AAUP?”


25 posted on 05/22/2016 10:32:07 AM PDT by pingman (Cruz lost me. Go Trump!)
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To: MarvinStinson

Click called for a couple of African thugs to assault a student that had the same rights on campus as all students do. Click was also arrested but plea bargained out with community service agreement which she did not honor. The bitch is a psychopath and an abuser of young people. She should be banned from all student contact. She needs to go back to Umass Amherst where this type of behavior is accepted.


26 posted on 05/22/2016 10:34:26 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarme)
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To: MarvinStinson

Wow, she could win the Debbie Washerwoman-Shitz look alike contest! But her hair does need more mayonnaise pomade!


27 posted on 05/22/2016 10:37:52 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: MarvinStinson

Who says retards can’t make it in the “educational” system in this country?


28 posted on 05/22/2016 10:40:10 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Zero tolerance is the liberal way of saying zero common sense.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Close the school down, nobody with any brains will send their children there.


29 posted on 05/22/2016 10:43:19 AM PDT by D Rider
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To: D Rider

> “violated basic standards of academic due process.”

Standards are
1) Liberals are right
2) Conservatives are wrong
3) SHUT UP!!!!!!


30 posted on 05/22/2016 11:08:27 AM PDT by LostPassword
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To: MarvinStinson

So she has the right to violate the rights of others. Got it!


31 posted on 05/22/2016 12:08:44 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: MarvinStinson

Who slipped the picture of Carrot Top into the thread?


32 posted on 05/22/2016 2:41:11 PM PDT by Old Yeller (Calling Obama a POS is a major insult to S.)
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To: MarvinStinson

Mob rule is the death of reason.


33 posted on 05/22/2016 3:23:03 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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