BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN
Melissa Click, who called for “some muscle” to thwart student academic freedom to film an on-campus anti-racism protest at the University of Missouri, is now on the faculty of Gonzaga University. According to the Chicago Tribune, Professor Click has a one-year appointment in the undergraduate communication studies department. She is listed on their website at the Roman Catholic institution in Spokane, Washington.
The AAUP censured Mizzou in June for the absence of a faculty hearing prior to the board of curator’s dismissal action last February. What I have found most bizarre about Dr Click’s abusive verbal tongue lashing of a student videographer, was her attempt to suppress media coverage of a civil rights demonstration demanding better treatment of African-American students. Having been involved in many protests, here and abroad, I can’t recall a purported supporter of a protest action attempting to suppress press coverage: student or otherwise. Indeed student protests at Mizzou, because they were widely covered, led to the resignations of both the president and chancellor.
Public protest has a goal(s). Its means are to garner wider dissemination to enhance support of the ends sought. That is the purpose of protest: to seek remedy through change by attracting a wider public to the cause. Melissa Click appropriately apologized for her bad behaviour, and hopefully will be a more effective change agent at the Jesuit institution.
It is nice to see an academician, who was entangled in a national controversy that led to dismissal, find safe haven on a campus that has the courage to give a professor a second chance. Anybody want to step up and hire Steven Salaita or Norman Finkelstein?
This take on what happened is not surprising, since it is what was spread through the media. But it is not correct, and the actual situation is far less puzzling. Click was not trying to suppress media. Journalists had been asked to step back and a give the students a break for a few minutes regroup and prepare for. A press conference that was coming shortly. The vast majority of reporters respected this request. A couple did not, a few were very aggressive toward the protesters, and since the students had a been under threat for the past week and more, other students and staff and faculty were quite concerned about their safety. Click and others did not suppress media, but actually helped to enable media to get stories and helped to make the press conference happen. Sadly, this aspect of the story has been silenced in the rush to declare that the videos context is self-evident.
I understand your counter argument but I don’t accept it. 1) Dr Click, by all accounts and I have watched the video, tried to restrain Mark Schierbecker, a student, from videotaping the protest. 2) When that failed, she appears to ask other STUDENTS to physically restrain Mark with “some muscle.” 3) Dr Click does not own Mizzou’s campus and had no business directing “traffic” and ordering students about. You refer to reporters: we have a free press and campus actions should be fair game for coverage: especailly by an enrolled student on HIS campus. 4) No one has claimed, even you, that Mark was a threat to anyone. 5) I don’t think Dr Click should have been fired or even sanctioned. I do think a public scolding was justified, and stated in my post I am glad she has a job.
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