Amid protests for mishandling racist incidents on the University of Missouri (UM) campus, the school system's president, Tim Wolfe, announced he would resign.
According to The Associated Press, Wolfe called a "special meeting" on Monday morning with the UM system's Board of Curators to announce his immediate resignation.
African-American students have complained recently about facing an increasing amount of racially charged hostility on campus, The Washington Post reported. Numerous black students said they have been called by racial slurs and there was an instance in a residence hall bathroom in which someone smeared feces on the wall in the shape of a swastika.
The protestors, who named themselves Concerned Student 1950, confronted Wolfe on these issues on two separate occasions. Both times, the UM President tried to shrug off the demonstrators, dismissing their complaints.
Before that, Wolfe controversially ended funding for healthcare for UM's graduate students and discontinued the school's contract with Planned Parenthood, The Columbia Missourian reported. A black graduate student named Jonathan Butler began a hunger strike last Monday and stated he would not eat again until Wolfe was no longer the school system's president.
On Saturday, black players on the UM football team joined the protest by vowing to not practice or play any games until Butler's hunger strike ended. The next day, UM head football coach Gary Pinkel stated the whole team would take that stand.
With Wolfe's resignation, Butler's hunger strike will likely end after one week and the Missouri Tigers will play BYU on Saturday. Boycotting the game would have cost UM $1 million for breaking the two schools' contract to play one another.
"Our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue," Pinkel and Mizzou athletic director Mack Rhoades said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "After meeting with the team this morning, it is clear they do not plan to return to practice until Jonathan resumes eating."
