By Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri lawmaker proposes cutting $8 million from the University of Missouri system roiled by recent race-related protests at its Columbia campus.
The possible cuts were rolled out Tuesday by Republican House Budget Chairman Tom Flanigan of Carthage.
The cuts include reducing 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.
Tenure-seeking Click had a confrontation with a student photographer and videographer during the Nov. 9 protests at the Columbia campus over the university leadership’s perceived indifference to racial issues. State lawmakers broadly have called for Click to be fired.
Gov. Jay Nixon called the budget proposal “devastating to public education.”
