COLUMBIA, Mo., Nov. 13 (UPI) — The University of Missouri on Thursday hired a former administrator from the school and one time civil rights lawyer to serve as interim president, the school announced.
Michael Middleton, 68, a former longtime administrator at the university and civil rights lawyer will take over as interim president for the university, the Board of Curators announced. The previous president resigned amid protests of tolerating racism.
Middleton had served as deputy chancellor at the school before retiring last summer. He replaces Tim Wolfe who resigned Monday amid students protesting the campus had become a hostile environment. One student went on a hunger strike and the football team refused to play until Wolfe was gone.
Quickly, the school announced Wolfe’s resignation as well as several changes designed to make the university more inclusive, peaceful and cohesive.
“Mike Middleton is the best person to lead the system during this critical period of transition, with 30 years of leadership experience on the MU campus and past service as a civil rights attorney,” said chairman of the board of curators Donald Cupps,. “Mike’s outstanding managerial skills, and knowledge of the UM System and its four campuses, make him the leader we need to advance our university system forward.”
Middleton is black, and retired in August to become deputy chancellor emeritus and was working on a plan with chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, who will resign at the end of the year, to make the university more diverse and inclusive.
“Given the recent turmoil, Deputy Chancellor Emeritus Middleton is a strong transitional figure,” MU Policy Now wrote in a letter of endorsement. Other student organizations signed the letter, including the Legion of Black Collegians, a group Middleton co-founded in the 1960s
Middleton was one of the first black graduates from the University of Missouri’s law school in 1971 before becoming a trial attorney for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. He returned to the university in 1985 as a member of the law school faculty, became vice provost for minority affairs and faculty development in 1997, and deputy chancellor in 1998, where he turned black studies and women’s studies into their own departments.
“The time has come for us to acknowledge and address our daunting challenges,” Middleton said in a statement. ” And return to our relentless adherence to the University of Missouri’s mission to discover, disseminate, preserve and apply knowledge.”
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