By protests, I meant that literal protests–marches, signs, groups of people congregating–had stopped on campus. I agree that there is still discussion, etc. going on and the Concerned Student 1950 group is far from broken up. I don’t disagree with any of your observations, I just wanted to clarify a few things as a student on campus during the protests. I also agree with your point that the school represents the state’s demographics. It would be hard to equalize the demographics when the state is largely white (and even with OOS students, it’s still naturally overwhelmingly white).
Part of the reason for the protests may be because of what some would say is “overt political correctness” – those on campus who disagree with the protests have called it that. Another reason is that many are truly frustrated and feel that they’ve been discriminated against…now whether the university can do anything to change that or not is up for debate.
I can’t really speak to the consequences on campus as a result of this but I do know that between the protests and everything that went down with former President. Wolfe and the faculty that pressured R. Bowen Loftin to resign as chancellor, the state legislature is really trying to run the school now. Sen. Kurt Schaefer is known for trying to have a hand in how the school operates (between cutting the educational Planned Parenthood contracts and threatening to cut funding) and now they’re really wanting to make changes. Decreased funding in the coming year is practically guaranteed because down in Jeff City they now think the school is run by a group of students.