Lawmakers want Mizzou employees fired for photographer clash

More than 100 Missouri Republican lawmakers signed a letter to the University Of Missouri Board of Curators calling for the immediate firing of assistant professor Melissa Click, reported USA Today Tuesday. When he said he didn’t have to leave, she said, “All right”. “Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here!”

A Mizzou professor was taped yelling out loud “I need some muscle over here” while trying to kick out a student journalist from a protest this past fall.

The letter added: “The university now has the opportunity to send a strong message that leadership can and will act quickly and decisively to root out bad behavior”.

“We wish to state in no uncertain terms our support for Click as a member of the University of Missouri faculty who has earned her position through an outstanding record of teaching and research”, Click’s allies wrote. A spokesman for the university system and the board referred questions to the university.

“The actions of both Basler and Click were unacceptable and inflammatory in nature, the university needs educators who display civility and patience even during emotional moments”, Schaefer said.

Her actions amounted to a “completely disregard for the First Amendment rights of reporters”, the letter said.

Critics fumed that a professor could not only take part in a student protest, but also that one affiliated with the school’s venerable journalism school would try to forcibly stop a journalist from reporting the news. Click’s faculty supporters say she’s guilty of “at most a regrettable mistake”, and they note she has apologized.

In the letter, the GOP lawmakers also raise questions about Click’s research.

Despite resigning from her appointment, the lawmakers wrote that “it is exceedingly hard to justify her continued service at the University of Missouri”. As an academic professional, her first goal should have been more to promote a safe and stable learning environment for all students, and to represent the University to the public in a way that strengths the image of our flagship stat institution of higher education. Melissa Click after her role in the Concerned Student 1950 protests November 2015. According to a university bio, Click’s “current research projects involve 50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans’ relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children’s television programs”. However, she remains an untenured professor at the university.