The University of Missouri has terminated Melissa Click’s employment. She is the communications/journalism professor who, in the heat of last fall’s protests on campus, assaulted a student who was filming the scene and called for “some muscle” to keep him from doing what journalists are supposed to do. (Evidently, she adheres to the notion that journalists are supposed to help bring about desired social change rather than to report objectively.)
In this Real Clear Policy piece, Tom Lindsay of the Texas Public Policy Foundation argues that while the actual decision was made by the university’s board, it was actually the pressure of the free market that led to her firing. The reason is that in the wake of the ugly protests and the way university officials caved in to the protesters’ demands, financial support was falling. Crucially, that was only the case at the flagship campus in Columbia and not at any other school in the system.
Just as a company has to react when a product stops selling, so must a university when people signal that they aren’t happy with it. As long as people are free to use their money as they see fit, universities can’t afford to act in just any way officials choose. Darn good thing.