For former Mizzou student Courtney Allen Curtis - now a state representative - the recent troubles on the Columbia campus mean it's time to create a different "flagship" university for the state.
So Curtis, D-Ferguson, has filed a bill and a resolution designating Lincoln University as that flagship.
"Due in part to recent events that have gone on at the University of Missouri," he said in a news release, "it is the General Assembly's job to recognize the leadership of Lincoln University by honoring the institution with this bill and resolution (filed) on the last day of Black History Month."
Curtis told the News Tribune Monday afternoon: "What I'm trying to do is hold Mizzou accountable.
"And, furthermore, if we only invest in one leader, and that leader fails, then that means we're leaderless."
LU President Kevin Rome told the News Tribune Monday afternoon the school had no immediate comment on Curtis' bill and resolution.
Curtis' bill would add the "official flagship institution of the state of Missouri" as one new section to the state law chapter on "State Emblems."
Curtis also makes his case in a three-page "concurrent resolution," which the state Constitution requires to be handled "in the same manner as in the case of a bill; provided, that no resolution shall have the effect to repeal, extend, or amend any law."
In the proposed resolution, Curtis wants lawmakers to agree that, among its provisions, the:
• University of Missouri-Columbia ("University of Missouri") is designated as the flagship institution of the University of Missouri System, and the University of Missouri has not fulfilled the ideals of this state.
• University of Missouri has a long history of lacking diversity and its campus has a history of racial discrimination.
His resolution also notes the "concerns of groups unaffiliated with the University of Missouri, but who have an interest in the welfare of its students and the institution itself, such as the black caucus of the state legislature, the state legislature as a whole, and alumni of the university, have been ignored by the leadership of the University of Missouri."
Curtis wants lawmakers to agree MU administrators have "not proposed a diversity or racial equity plan" and that the MU leadership "has failed to undertake the necessary measures to correct the racial disparity and climate of discrimination on its campus."
About 25 years ago, then-LU President Wendell Rayburn called Lincoln one of the most diverse institutions in the country - an assessment that Rome has agreed with.
Curtis said history has changed Lincoln over the years and, with "the way that people in Mid-Missouri utilize the institution for gaining a higher education - it may not be what it once was in terms of minority students. (But) it still has the land-grant status that we have, severely, under-invested in."
Because lawmakers haven't provided Lincoln with as much money as it needs to match all of the federal money available for LU's land-grant status, Curtis said, Missouri government has "a missed opportunity" and has "done a disservice to the state by not investing in both, equally, so that we could have two great institutions from a research perspective."
Lincoln administrators have been talking with the House and Senate budget writers about ways to improve that funding.
Curtis doesn't think his proposals will hurt that effort.
"It shouldn't provide any blow-back and, if anything, it should give us more of a reason to invest in (LU)," he explained, "because we already have one land-grant institution that has, always, gotten what was due."