JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri lawmaker is proposing cutting $8 million from the University of Missouri system roiled by recent race-related protests at its Columbia campus.
The possible funding cuts rolled out Tuesday by Republican House Budget Chairman Tom Flanigan of Carthage in southwest Missouri include paring funding to the Columbia campus by $400,000, among other things by eliminating the salary of suspended University of Missouri assistant professor Melissa Click.
The budget plan also would cut more than $7 million from the system's administration - half the reported amount for the administration in the current fiscal year.
Click had a confrontation with a student photographer and a student videographer during the Nov. 9 protests at the Columbia campus over what some saw as university leadership's indifference to racial issues. The Columbia chancellor and system president resigned after the protests escalated with one student's hunger strike and an announcement by members of the football team that they would refuse to play.
Although Click has said she regretted her actions, some state lawmakers have called for her firing. The university system's governing board of curators has ordered an investigation by its general counsel to determine whether additional discipline "is appropriate."
Tuesday's budget proposal reflects lingering tensions between the legislature and the university system. The discord began bubbling last summer when the university and Republican lawmakers butted heads over the Columbia school's ties to a local Planned Parenthood clinic that enabled the center to start providing medication-induced abortions.
After the November protests, one Republican lawmaker proposed but later withdrew a bill to strip scholarships from college athletes who refuse to play. Since then, after the recent resignations of the only black curators, GOP leaders said they have no interest in filling the vacancies before next year, when Gov. Jay Nixon is out of office.
Tuesday's budget plan "ensures administrators, not students, feel the pain of these budget actions," Flanigan said. "It remains to be seen if effective leadership is in place to move the system forward."
Nixon countered that the budget plan "would be devastating to public education," criticizing lawmaker action to propose funding K-12 and higher education by another roughly $129 million less in general revenue than what he originally recommended.
"Cutting funding for public schools and increasing college tuition will not move our state forward," Nixon said in a statement, pledging to work with lawmakers "to provide our schools and colleges with the resources they need to educate the workforce of the future."