The dual resignations on Monday of Timothy M. Wolfe and R. Bowen Loftin, the University of Missouri system president and flagship campus’s chancellor, respectively, were a resounding victory for people protesting on the Columbia campus in recent weeks. (Mr. Wolfe is leaving entirely; Mr. Loftin is taking another position in the system at the end of the year.)
Both leaders had resisted several calls to resign. But it was the long-simmering dissatisfaction in Columbia, Mo., that played a crucial role in forcing them out. For those just catching up, here are five moments that paved the way for Monday’s ousters:
1. Graduate students learn their health insurance won’t be subsidized.
In August the university suddenly informed graduate students it would no longer subsidize their health insurance. The measure, which the institution defended as satisfying a provision of the Affordable Care Act, prompted protests and an apology from Mr. Loftin. (He later assured students their insurance would continue to be subsidized.) The university’s English department cited the move last week in a letter expressing no confidence in Mr. Loftin.
2. A student leader’s account of a racist incident goes viral.
The recent outrage over racism in Columbia began outright in September, when the president of the Missouri Students Association, Payton Head, wrote in a Facebook post that he had been accosted on the campus by men who yelled a racist epithet at him from a truck. “I really just want to know why my simple existence is such a threat to society,” Mr. Head wrote in the post, which went viral. The association went on to demand Mr. Wolfe’s resignation before the Board of Curators’ meeting on Monday.
3. A homecoming parade gets tense.
Students protesting the racist incidents, united under the name Concerned Student 1950, surrounded Mr. Wolfe’s car at a homecoming parade in October. When the students refused to move, they were dispersed by the police. Throughout the incident, Mr. Wolfe stayed in the car, which then allegedly bumped at least one of the protesters as it drove away. (Watch a video of the incident by The Columbia Missourian.) As he sought to pacify protesters in the last week, Mr. Wolfe apologized for handling the incident in the way he did.
4. Jonathan Butler begins a hunger strike.
Mr. Butler, a graduate student and one of the protesters at the parade, began a hunger strike on November 2, saying he wouldn’t eat until Mr. Wolfe resigned. In the ensuing days, Mr. Wolfe released several statements saying he was concerned about the strike, drawing national attention to the students’ grievances.
5. Football players threaten a boycott, and their coach backs them up.
On Saturday a group of Missouri football players said they would join Mr. Butler’s protest, boycotting all football-related events until Mr. Wolfe was out of office. The next day, their coach, Gary Pinkel, tweeted a photo of the team together and said he stood behind the players. In a news conference on Monday, Mr. Pinkel said the players had been motivated primarily by concern for Mr. Butler.
