Education

Mizzou’s $49-Million Budget Deficit Is Just The Latest Downfall In Its Long History, Missouri Senator Says [VIDEO]

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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The University of Missouri’s nearly $50-million budget deficit three years after protests rocked the campus is not its only shortcoming, a state senator suggested Friday.

Missouri Republican Sen. Tom Hurst explained his own experience at Mizzou, as well as why his daughter chose not to attend the school, in a conversation with The College Fix.

“[Mizzou] is more concerned about their image and [Michigan State University] was more concerned about the student,” Hurst said, explaining why his daughter decided to go to the latter school.

The senator also critiqued his own experience while attending Mizzou.

“I feel like I had to educate myself versus having the professors educate me,” he said. “They didn’t care if I showed up or not, they were going to get paid anyway.”

Mizzou faces a $49-million budget deficit after the 2015 protests in which students critiqued perceived racism at the school that ended up with the resignation of Mizzou’s president. Former Mizzou professor Melissa Click reportedly physically impeded a student journalist from covering an activism event and later got charged with a misdemeanor of assault. The school subsequently laid off 30 staff members and nixed 155 vacancies, but professors and protests are not the only reasons people have avoided Mizzou.

“I applied to [Mizzou], was accepted, I was assigned housing and I toured the campus. I was really all set to go,” Washington University in St. Louis student Chase Rowland told The Fix. “Then I got my tuition statement. Despite being awarded the Chancellor’s scholarship, the Bright Flight scholarship, and having my family income be in one of the lowest categories, I was still going to to have to take out a $10,000 loan per year.”

“Wash U actually gave me enough financial aid to cover my tuition, housing and food in full,” Rowland continued. “After that it was an easy choice. MU was not willing at all to help me go to school and Wash U made sure I could go.”

Mizzou experienced a slack in its 2016 enrollment, with 25 percent fewer freshmen attending the school. This figure plummeted to 35 percent in 2017, but has since improved, although it still rests below fall 2015 levels. (RELATED: Mizzou’s Enrollment Keeps Plummeting After 2015 Protests)

“Many students decided they did not want that atmosphere and attended different universities,” Hurst said. “From what I’ve seen we did not lose those students to other states, they just went to other universities within the state.”

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Mizzou did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment immediately.

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