Nearly six months after the board of curators at the University of Missouri fired mass communication professor Melissa Click for threatening a student cameraman with mob violence, the disgraced professor’s curriculum vitae — academia’s glorified, lengthy version of a résumé — remains emblazoned on the taxpayer-funded school’s website.
Mizzou’s board of curators voted 4-2 to dismiss Click on Feb. 24, which was three months after she grabbed national headlines in November for threatening the cameraman because he was attempting to cover on-campus protests.
A YouTube video of the November incident which led to Click’s firing shows the professor calling for “muscle” from an angry mob to help remove the student journalist, Mark Schierbecker.
Schierbecker asked Click if he could interview her on a public campus quad. “No, you need to get out,” the $50,000-a-year, taxpayer-funded professor responded.
When Schierbecker declined to leave, Click grabbed his camera and shook it. “Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here?” Click shouted to the crowd. “I need some muscle over here.” (RELATED: Meet The Sick Mizzou Media Professor Who Threatened A Reporter With MOB VIOLENCE)
Here is a screenshot of the first page of Click’s 11-page résumé on the University of Missouri’s website:
Aug 16, 2016: Melissa Click’s curriculum vitae on Mizzou’s website
The University of Missouri’s media relations department told The Daily Caller that the school’s academic department of communication is to blame for keeping Click’s résumé on the Mizzou website for almost six months — 174 days to be exact, and counting — after she was officially fired.
“The communication department says it is an oversight and they are working to get it down right now,” University of Missouri spokesman Jeff Sossamon told TheDC late Monday afternoon.
The University of Missouri’s communication department presents itself as masters of the art of timely and effective communication.
“The faculty members are keenly aware of our role in helping students appreciate and effectively negotiate the complex communication processes they encounter,” the department confidently proclaims on its introductory webpage. “Although we live in a changing world, the fundamentals of communication remain constant. Come see what we can do for you.”
As Click’s curriculum vitae shows, she was an associate professor at Mizzou (and once “adviser of the year” in the communication department). The eclectic set of interests that she studied at Missouri taxpayer expense included “Twilight,” Martha Stewart, and more — so much more. (RELATED: The 9 Most Preposterous Parts Of Melissa Click’s Absurd Résumé)
Examples of her work include “‘More drinkin’, less thinkin’, fewer teeth, and beer’: Representations of class in CMT’s My Big Redneck Wedding,” “Fifty Shades of postfeminism: Contextualizing readers’ reflections on the erotic romance series” and “Saving food: Finding the politics of the everyday in food preservation. Environmental Communication.”
Click’s academic study of food preservation manages to spend 15 pages describing how the act of canning food can help destroy capitalism. “Unlike the dominant discourses of food movements, which encourage an individualistic, consumer-oriented politics, food preservation emphasizes connection and relationships and thus has the potential to subvert the capitalistic logic of the global agro-food industry,” Click instructs.
Before Click was fired, MU officials insisted her job would be safe at least until a tenure review process was completed next summer. However, heavy pressure from Republican lawmakers who wanted Click off the government payroll forced the board of curators to vote on her early dismissal.
Click eventually apologized for her altercation with the Mizzou student journalist, but her stunt made her a major liability. Over 100 lawmakers had signed a petition demanding that she be fired. A state budget proposal included a provision to specifically defund Click’s salary.
Click was finally suspended by the school in late January after she was prosecuted on a minor assault charge related to the incident with the student journalist. Click made a plea deal to perform 20 hours of community service and avoid jail time.
In early February, the Association of American University Professors condemned Click’s suspension without a hearing as a violation of her due process rights.
Concerned Student 1950, the group that led MU’s campus protests, has defended Click as a martyr for the cause of civil rights. (RELATED: The Daily Caller’s 2016 College Stupidity Awards: SPECIAL UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI EDITION)
In a lengthy and sympathetic profile in The Chronicle of Higher Education in April, Click claimed that sinister forces took away her job to send a warning to black people. “This is all about racial politics,” she asserted. “I’m a white lady. I’m an easy target.” “I was the one held accountable,” the taxpayer-funded professor who called for “muscle” to descend upon a student whined. The Chronicle’s write-up also said Click lives in fear, leaving her home each day “bracing for confrontation” in case she runs into a person opposed to her past behavior.
Strangely, prior to her time in the limelight, Click seemed to enjoy confrontation — a lot. Video from still another altercation later surfaced showing Click yelling and cussing at cops during Mizzou’s homecoming parade.
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