Content Warning: The following article contains references to rape and sexual assault.
More than 100 protesters gathered at Traditions Plaza at 9 a.m. Monday to demonstrate against cuts to coordinator positions at MU’s Department of Social Justice centers.
Protest leaders said their goal was to catch tours as they showed prospective students around the MU campus. At Jesse Hall, student protesters spoke out about the importance of the centers and what the cuts would mean.
The protesters moved from the plaza to the steps of Jesse Hall, chanting, “Justice for justice” and “save the centers.”
“As a victim of rape who needs the RSVP and Title IX Center, I do not feel supported by the campus,” one student said. “I do not feel safe.”
He said claims circulating on social media that all staff members at the centers will be let go and that the centers themselves would be eliminated are false. It is “absolutely not true that we’re getting rid of the centers,” and the university is “absolutely committed to the resources these centers provide,” Basi said.
The Columbia Missourianreported that the plan aims to raise the number of full-time staff members in the centers from 10 to 15.
The private message outlining the restructuring plan said the university would move away from “the current holistic identity-based coordinators” to new “task-oriented positions.” The new positions will span multiple centers and include individual staff members in charge of events and programming for the centers, overseeing student staff members, and managing center training programs. The
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