Mizzou chancellor blocks students on Twitter for COVID complaints. Who’s the adult here?

University of Missouri System President and MU Chancellor Mun Y. Choi sent the wrong message when he blocked the Twitter accounts of at least four Mizzou students who’d been complaining about a lack of COVID-19 protections during this pandemic.

It suggests, and not for the first time, that Choi doesn’t handle dissent very well.

It justifies the conservative argument that universities have become hostile environments for free speech.

And it penalizes students for using their First Amendment rights to speak up, as students have always done, and certainly have good reason to do in this frightening moment.

One student, Cannon Summers, tweeted a screenshot of the message that Summers had been blocked by Choi after complaining about there being no hot water in several MU bathrooms. “Bragging about having the best [journalism] school but then blocking/suppressing the voices of student concern over Coronavirus just doesn’t sit right with me,” Summers tweeted after being blocked.

Initially, a university spokesman said he wondered if Choi had been hacked, because blocking a student would be totally out of character for him.

Only Choi wasn’t hacked, and spokesman Christian Basi later confirmed that the chancellor had blocked Summers and others as well. “Several — not all — contained profanity,” Basi said of the messages that got students blocked. “He has been on the receiving end of messages/tweets that were disrespectful and not constructive. He is always open to respectful conversations with students.”

One student who was blocked had sent a message that said “f--- you,” one had suggested that she’d spit on Choi if he pulled up next to her on his moped, and one said, “Mizzou is directly responsible for the COVID numbers in Columbia. You greedy f----.”

Under the circumstances, could Choi really not have ignored the profanity and addressed the concerns?

Other students have been posting complaints about meals delivered to students in quarantine. One of these was a sad photo of two ravioli and a few broccoli spears. Some students said they’d been forced to sneak out for groceries because their meals hadn’t been delivered at all. Basi said these complaints are all being addressed.

In July, following the decision not to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from the campus, Choi said that subordinates who did not agree with administration decisions like that one should look for other work. “When not just leaders, but staff members are actively, actively contesting that decision that was made at the institutional level and the decision was made that we are not going to move it, and there are continued efforts to have it removed, that’s counter productive, that is totally counterproductive.”

We understand that this is a difficult, even unparalleled moment on college campuses, and that everyone at all levels is on edge.

But in blocking students, Choi is not being much of a role model on how to handle stress or behave in an emergency.

Ten sororities and fraternities at MU have had their activities suspended while they’re under investigation for breaking COVID rules, and Mizzou recently began enforcing a mask mandate outdoors as well as indoors, in a desperate attempt to stop transmission of the virus.

According to the New York Times, Columbia is now the eighth-hardest hit location in the country.

So yes, the pressure on Choi is severe. But so is the pressure on students, and he’s the well-paid adult, right?

This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 5:21 PM.