Mizzou Prof: Students Protesting Because They’re Angry About Ferguson

BLITZER: “Football player, for example, were to have sat out this coming Saturday’s game, it could have cost the university $1 million alone for that — for that game. Let’s bring in Stephanie Shonekan, an associate professor at the University of Missouri. She’s joining us now live from Columbia. So what’s your reaction, professor, to the president’s resignation?”

SHONEKAN: “I’m elated. I am thrilled that the students are heard. I think that this is one step in what will probably be a pretty long journey. But this is — this is all — this is all a good thing in the sense that it is signaling to our students that they — that they — that they mean a lot to us. That they’re — that they’re — that they’re — their thoughts and their — their concerns are concerns to us as well. So this is all [indecipherable]”

BLITZER: “How did things get so bad, professor?”

SHONEKAN: “You know, this is — what we saw with the football team and what we’ve seen this semester is just — not — another few episodes in a long — in a long line of events that happened over the last — I’ve been here for about four and a half years and there has been tension in all of that time. I think with the football players, it just brought it to national attention, which is — which is wonderful. But students have been — have been passionate about this for a long time, and I think most recently the catalyst was last year when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, our students realized that what they’ve been feeling here is linked to — to what happened just — just down the road. And so they — they started agitating for — for change on campus. I should mention, the agitation has all been very peaceful. It’s been thoughtful and — and well done by a group of leaders who have been very intentional in getting action done.”