MU’s Melissa Click deserved a hearing, says a National professors’ group

University of Missouri’s curators violated Melissa Click’s right to due process when it dismissed the assistant professor shown calling for muscle to stop a student journalist during campus protests last fall, says a report from the American Association of University Professors.

A second video showed Click in an earlier confrontation with a Columbia Missouri police officer.

Each action occurred when Click, who at the time was a member of the MU communications faculty, tried to intervene on behalf of students during race-related protests on the Columbia campus last year.

The protests led to the resignations of the university system president and the chancellor on the Columbia campus.

Click’s behavior set off a barrage of comments, including some from Missouri legislators who called for her to be fired, and threatened to cut state funding to the university. Others on the campus said while they may not have agreed with Click’s actions, they supported her right under university policy to a hearing before her peers. Click was not given a hearing.

Click was fired on February 25. An AAUP investigation committee visited the Columbia campus March 22 and 23 to meet with faculty and administrators.

The report, released Thursday, said MU “violated basic standards of academic due process.” And, “In light of the board’s action against Professor Click and in the context of legislative threats to the institution and unresolved administrative turmoil, academic freedom and shared governance at MU are endangered.”

In a statement, the Board of Curators said it continues to stand behind its actions, “which were in the best interests of the university, regarding Dr. Melissa Click’s misconduct.” It also said it “respectfully disagrees with the AAUP’s conclusion that academic freedom is threatened.”

Next month AAUP members vote on whether to add MU to a list of censured institutions. Being on the list “serves as a sign to all professors that their rights may not be represented at that institution,” said Laura Markwardt, spokeswoman for the AAUP.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "MU’s Melissa Click deserved a hearing, says a National professors’ group."