JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. —
Two Missouri legislators propose that universities revoke the scholarships of
athletes if they go on strike. Another proposes mandatory classes on free
speech for all students. State legislative leaders say funding for the
University of Missouri could be cut.
Those are a few
examples of the backlash after members of the university's football team
threatened to strike and joined protests over the administration's handling of
racial tensions on campus. Top university officials later resigned.
"The perception is
that there's a lot of things that went wrong, and there's going to be a price
to pay," Republican Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard said Tuesday.
Last month a graduate
student went on a hunger strike, the football team supported the student and
the head football coach backed his players. The next day former university
system President Tim Wolfe stepped down. The Missouri protests prompted
demonstrations of support at universities around the country.
The upheaval shocked
and embarrassed some alumni, as well as members of the state Legislature. With
weeks before the 2016 state legislative session is scheduled to begin on Jan.
6, some lawmakers, most of them Republicans, say the university will face
consequences for how leaders handled the protests.
The university
"coddled the students and gave them everything they wanted," said
Republican Rep. Kurt Bahr, who co-sponsored the bill on student athletes'
scholarships. He said the university should have revoked football players'
scholarships if they didn't practice or play.
University of Missouri
System spokesman John Fougere in an emailed statement said the university is
"committed to working closely and rebuilding confidence with our state
legislators in the upcoming session."
The backlash comes at a
time when the University of Missouri's relationship with the Legislature
already was tense. The school this past year faced criticism from some GOP
lawmakers who questioned agreements between the Columbia campus and a local
Planned Parenthood clinic that had offered medication-induced abortions.
Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
A major lever they
could use to punish the state's flagship university is money.
Funding for the
University of Missouri is "going to take a haircut," Senate leader
Richard said.
About 15 percent of the
system's budget this fiscal year came from state appropriations.
Republican House
Majority Leader Mike Cierpiot said lawmakers should be sensitive to the
feelings of minority students protesting on campus but also need to stress the
university's mission to educate.
"They want to find
out what's going on and how we can get Missouri out of the headlines,"
Cierpiot said, referring to national media attention.
Some of the proposals
suggested by legislators are more symbolic than real. Bahr said his goal for
the bill to punish student athletes was to show the university that some
lawmakers disagree with how leadership handled the campus unrest.
The proposals have
drawn criticism from some Democrats.
The bill to punish
athletes "seeks to further solidify and legalize institutional racism by targeting
black athletes for exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and
reducing them to the status of subjugated livestock," Missouri Legislative
Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Brandon Ellington said in a statement.
Republican Rep. Dean
Dohrman said his bill to require students in public colleges to take a class on
freedom of speech was in part motivated by a communications professor who tried
to stop a student photographer from taking pictures of protesters. Her actions
were widely criticized by advocates for freedom of the press and speech, and
she later apologized.
Senate Democratic
Leader Joe Keaveny said it's not up to the Legislature to fix issues at the
University of Missouri.
"I'm not about to
begin to run that university, and I don't think anybody in Jefferson City
should begin to run that university," he said.
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