US university chief quits in race row

Calls for Mr Wolfe’s removal gathered steam at the weekend when more than two dozen of the school’s black football players announced they would not participate in team activities until Mr Wolfe quit or was sacked.

Members of the Tigers football team told reporters Monday morning that they would return to practice at its regularly scheduled time Tuesday and will play Saturday when Missouri faces BYU in Kansas City, Mo.

The football players joined the protest after graduate student Jonathan Butler began a hunger strike one week ago. We didn’t respond or react… and we forced individuals like Jonathan Butler to take unusual actions, and immediate steps, to effect change. Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel canceled practiced on Sunday and wrote on Twitter that he supported the team.

Wolfe drew additional criticism when his auto bumped into a protester blocking his route through the university’s homecoming parade, and he failed to immediately apologize.

The protests began early in the semester after Missouri’s student government president, who is black, said he was called a racial slur by the occupant of a passing pickup truck while walking on campus. It is my belief that we stopped listening to each other.

The protests have been percolating for months on Missouri’s predominantly white campus, where students have complained of racial slurs and harassment. In one notorious instance, a swastika was drawn in human feces on a dormitory wall. Butler said he would continue to refuse to eat until Wolfe resigned.

Members of the governing body of the University of Missouri system are set for a special meeting amid ongoing protests over matters of race and discrimination at the system’s flagship school.

Tensions are high at the public research university with a black student on a hunger strike and others camped out in solidarity.

Watch Wolfe’s full statement below. He said he is stepping down “out of love”, and that he hopes people involved in the dialogue about the school’s future stop yelling at each other. Unfortunately this did not happen and this is why I stand before you today and I take full responsibility for this frustration and I take full responsibility for the inaction, which has occurred.

Approximately 17 percent of the student population identifies with a minority group, according to the university website.