Mike Middleton is a good choice to lead University of Missouri system out of upheaval

The University of Missouri Board of Curators made a good move Thursday by appointing Mike Middleton, a respected lawyer, academic and administrator, as the interim president of the four-campus system.

Middleton, who retired as deputy chancellor of the Columbia campus on Aug. 31, is well suited to help bring calm to Mizzou and to oversee some long-overdue initiatives to improve race relations. At the same time, he is described as being knowledgeable about the statewide system’s operations and challenges.

His ties to MU date to 1964, when he enrolled there as a freshman, graduating in 1968. He eventually became the third black graduate of MU’s School of Law. In 1985, after a stint as a civil rights lawyer in Washington, Middleton returned to Columbia as the law school’s first black professor. He became deputy chancellor in 1998.

The Columbia Missourian has reported that Middleton was active in civil rights movements as a student. He was a founder of the Legion of Black Collegians, a governing body for black campus groups. He and other students presented administrators with certain demands, including the hiring of more black faculty and bringing an end to harassment and threats to black students.

Concerned Student 1950, the activist group whose protests resulted this week in the departure of system president Tim Wolfe, cited those demands when making its own list of conditions, demanding that the university finally meet them.

Middleton told the student newspaper that when he arrived at Mizzou no one wanted to room with him because of his skin color. Given his experience, he has an affinity with the students who forced the changes this week. His task, a difficult one, will be to maintain that good relationship while acting in the best interest of the entire university system.

Concerned Student 1950 has said it wants students more involved in governance of the university system and a process that allows students and faculty members of color to participate in the selection of the next permanent system president.

Students should have more of a voice in the way the university system is run. Allowing the lone student representative on the Board of Curators to actually have a vote would be a good first step. And Concerned Student 1950 have loudly served notice that administrators will discount them at their peril.

But the university system is too vast and complex to allow any one group to have an outsized say in its governance.

That is especially true of the Missouri General Assembly.

Some conservative lawmakers this week have demanded that the university fire a staffer and an assistant professor who forcefully tried to stop student journalists from documenting protest events at MU’s quad on Monday.

Kurt Schaefer, the GOP senator from Boone County who likes to act as though he runs the university system, has gone so far as to propose they also be prosecuted for assault and false imprisonment.

The two employees were wrong and acted badly. But, for good reasons, their job status isn’t up to politicians.

The same goes for the next system president. Legislators appropriate money to state universities and have every right to weigh in on the qualifications they’d like to see in the next president of the university system. But curators must resist political pressure and protect the system’s independence and long-term well being.

The curators also acted wisely Thursday by announcing that Hank Foley, an executive system vice president, would replace R. Bowen Loftin immediately as chancellor of the Columbia campus. Loftin, under pressure, announced his departure this week, but said he would stay until the end of the year.

The first task for Middleton, Foley and others in charge is to ensure the safety of the four campuses. Vandalism and threats against black students in Columbia have been documented, and three students at other universities have been charged with making anonymous online threats.

The events of the last week at Mizzou have been remarkable. But the university’s challenges are greater than ever.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Mike Middleton is a good choice to lead University of Missouri system out of upheaval."