This whole University of Missouri thing...

Gary wrote: I guess the $64K question is ... is this an isolated incident, or could it spread to other college/university sports programs and then on to pro sports? If there's a conspiracy behind this movement, it seems like that could be the ultimate objective. Financial crisis in American sports.

I doubt it goes much further up the ladder. It's easy to convince college players to boycott a game that they won't make any money on (but the school does) compared to pro athletes that would be missing out on 10s or hundreds of thousand of dollars per game. When the athletes and the owners both make money, it changes the dynamic and removes a fair bit of the motivation to strike/boycott.

In reply to STM317:

Remember that NBA athletes were going to sit out the playoffs if one of the owners was not removed from ownership. The players won.

There is a lot of power in the players hands- regardless of the level.

bentwrench wrote: Isn't racial hysteria an act of racism? Or is it just politically correct to be politically correct and its politically correct to find something to be politically correct about? Or is this all ripples in the pond caused by liberal bleeding heart media sensationalism?

So defamation and intimidation should just be accepted?

How should the students handled the situation?

Being that defamation of character suits are brought up in court- there is a line to free speech.

Before this becomes the latest GRM Flounder festival, I'll remind everyone that US media reports on any topic are often too short and too sensationalized to get anywhere near the truth. I am guessing this has been building for a long time. If you want to really understand, you probably have to look well beyond CNN or ESPN.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to STM317: Remember that NBA athletes were going to sit out the playoffs if one of the owners was not removed from ownership. The players won. There is a lot of power in the players hands- regardless of the level.

This is true. There will always be some power in the "rank and file". But a college student, who sees the University they attend make millions of dollars off of them, while they get paid nothing, probably has a lot more motivation than a pro athlete making 6 or 8 figures a year. Unless the University threatens to withhold room and board or take scholarships away, the college athlete has nothing to lose and everything to gain, while the pro has far more on the line with a boycott.

In reply to wbjones:

Thank you that's what I was looking for, it's just that the first few pages of news articles are simply reporting what I wrote as the root cause of the problem.

As far as that goes I'm not sure why it wasn't handled at a lower administrative level. I understand that they get the directives from the Presidents office, but you'd think that there would have been some action by a disciplinary committee, provosts office, or some other body to stop that sort of thing. That is unless the president of the school simply condoned the actions and refused outright to enforce the punishments.

It just seems from the way it was reported that it jumped from something an RA would be handling to the presidents office with no in between action. That's calling for the president of a company to step down because someone didn't like the way that the helpdesk handled their call.

wbjones wrote: the only ones with any real leverage were the football team … by forfeiting the upcoming game, UM would be on the hook for over $1,000,000 …

This, right here, is part of the problem.

GameboyRMH wrote:

WOW Really Paul? wrote: I see this as a missed opportunity to do some good out of the whole situation......if he could have held out a month, just imagine the new lease on life he'd have given that hunger striking grad student(kid weighed over 300lbs)......

Saw a pic of the guy on TV the other day and most of that 300lbs had to be muscle...he looked more like a football player than a cake aficionado to me.

If it was mostly muscle he could have made it even longer.....

I did not check the source or know anything about them, but...

http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/mizzou-fraud-fest-kkk-alerts-poo-swastika-tales-implode/

Concerned Student 1950, which helped bring down the university system’s president Timothy Wolfe, has not fared well since its protest victory. Media professor Melissa Click has resigned her courtesy appointment after threatening school photographers, Student Body President Payton Head had to apologize for a false Ku Klux Klan sighting and there appears to be no evidence a “feces swastika” was smeared in a campus dormitory bathroom.

Can we blame Obama?

In reply to Toyman01: There is a police report about the feces swastika. They have seen it. So it did exist.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/12/mizzou-releases-photos-of-poop-swastika-discloses-details-of-previously-unreported-racial-slurs/

The rest of that seems to follow a FoxSports speculation page.

So...

In reply to alfadriver:

Your linked article is 24 hours newer than mine. You win.

In reply to Toyman01:

I should have put a warning- pictures of poo.

I'll add, there were death threats made to the black community on social media (allegedly), specifically an App called Yik-Yak. This issue has already led to students at other southern universities protesting issues not only at Missouri but at their own universities. Protesting is absolutely not a bad thing, but in some cases it seems like it's being done for the sake of protesting.

Something has "worked" as IC is in the midst of a "solidarity" protest in relation to this ordeal. I'm just glad it isn't Cornell, as then it would get shoved down the throat of every person within 10 miles of Ithaca, but IC flies under the radar, relatively speaking.

Better or worse, this new civil rights movement is just beginning.

classicJackets wrote: I'll add, there were death threats made to the black community on social media (allegedly), specifically an App called Yik-Yak. This issue has already led to students at other southern universities protesting issues not only at Missouri but at their own universities. Protesting is absolutely not a bad thing, but in some cases it seems like it's being done for the sake of protesting.

An app that allows someone to post death threats? That seems like something worthy to protest over.

Nobody should live in an environment where they can be intimidated and bullied. Let alone at a school.

I hate to use a simple picture to summarize everything, but I will anyway.

Not that great of a movie, but extremely relevant to this situation.

Type Q wrote: Before this becomes the latest GRM Flounder festival, I'll remind everyone that US media reports on any topic are often too short and too sensationalized to get anywhere near the truth. I am guessing this has been building for a long time. If you want to really understand, you probably have to look well beyond CNN or ESPN.

According to the Deadspin article, it appears that there had been a lot of metaphorical racist crap going on at the university before things escalated to literal racist crap. And apparently nobody in the administration had done much about it.

In reply to tuna55:

So you equate intimidation, defamation, and bullying to a joke?

Seriously? wow.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Type Q wrote: Before this becomes the latest GRM Flounder festival, I'll remind everyone that US media reports on any topic are often too short and too sensationalized to get anywhere near the truth. I am guessing this has been building for a long time. If you want to really understand, you probably have to look well beyond CNN or ESPN.

According to the Deadspin article, it appears that there had been a lot of metaphorical racist crap going on at the university before things escalated to literal racist crap. And apparently nobody in the administration had done much about it.

Similar issues had been brewing here at Michigan a few years ago- and instead of letting it escalate, they met with the students, and came up with a plan to address the concerns. Which has resulted in a much more sane campus.

That's all Missouri had to do. While loud and demanding, students are still sane and rational- they know everything can't be fixed, or even overnight. All they ask is that something is done so that they can get an education- free of a hostile environment.

students are MILD compared to my day … no one is taking over buildings … no one is burning things … no one is rioting …

this seemed very tame

alfadriver wrote: In reply to tuna55: So you equate intimidation, defamation, and bullying to a joke? Seriously? wow.

Focus on the movie, not the goofy tagline.

I equate what is happening to a massive overreaction to the real world where sometimes bad people do bad things.

If people, at the collegiate level, cannot cope with the things depicted in stories I have heard thus far, then we don't stand a chance when they are running the world.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Toyman01: There is a police report about the feces swastika. They have seen it. So it did exist. http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/12/mizzou-releases-photos-of-poop-swastika-discloses-details-of-previously-unreported-racial-slurs/ The rest of that seems to follow a FoxSports speculation page. So...

It's sad when someone has to refer to a single source when he is completely aware that literally all similar sources do the same. That makes it difficult to view such commentary as anything but impartial.

STM317 wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to STM317: Remember that NBA athletes were going to sit out the playoffs if one of the owners was not removed from ownership. The players won. There is a lot of power in the players hands- regardless of the level.

This is true. There will always be some power in the "rank and file". But a college student, who sees the University they attend make millions of dollars off of them, while they get paid nothing, probably has a lot more motivation than a pro athlete making 6 or 8 figures a year. Unless the University threatens to withhold room and board or take scholarships away, the college athlete has nothing to lose and everything to gain, while the pro has far more on the line with a boycott.

I glossed over this, but any single student on a scholarship for any merit, whether athletics or GPA, is being paid. Tuition, housing, food, books, education, training, etc is all compensation and should be treated like a job. If you refuse to work at your job, expect repercussions.

WOW Really Paul? wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote:

WOW Really Paul? wrote: I see this as a missed opportunity to do some good out of the whole situation......if he could have held out a month, just imagine the new lease on life he'd have given that hunger striking grad student(kid weighed over 300lbs)......

Saw a pic of the guy on TV the other day and most of that 300lbs had to be muscle...he looked more like a football player than a cake aficionado to me.

If it was mostly muscle he could have made it even longer.....

If this guy is over 300lbs he carries it REALLY well: