University of Missouri president resigns amid protests over racial tensions

Pressured by student and faculty protests over racial issues, the president of the University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe, resigned on Monday, urging those involved to use his resignation to heal.

At the start of a special meeting called by the Board of Curators, the university system's governing body, Wolfe said his resignation was effective immediately.

Wolfe's resignation came at the culmination of mounting criticism of his handling of racism on the school's campus network.

"I take full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred," Wolfe said in a television broadcast. "I have asked everybody to use my resignation to heal. Let's focus in changing what we can change today and in the future, not what we can't change in the past."

For months, black student groups have complained about racial slurs and other slights on the overwhelmingly white flagship campus of the state's four-college system, local media reports said.

Black members of the football team joined the outcry on Saturday night and a campus sit-in was organized on Sunday.

Representing the 27,000 undergraduates at the university of Missouri's flagship institution, the Missouri Students Association also called for Wolfe to step down in a letter sent to the Missouri System Board of Curators on Sunday night.

"In August of 2014, the university of Missouri met the shooting of Mike Brown with silence. In the following months, our students were left stranded, forced to face an increase in tension and inequality with no systemic support," the letter published on Twitter said.

"The mental health, academic quality, and physical safety of our black students has been compromised time and time again. Now, the campus climate has grown so tumultuous that all of our students are unable to pursue the very reason they attend this institution," the letter wrote.

Moreover, the faculty council also issued a statement of concern about Wolfe.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he appreciated Wolfe's decision to step down.

"Tim Wolfe's resignation was a necessary step toward healing and reconciliation on the University of Missouri campus, and I appreciate his decision to do so," Nixon said in a statement.

"There is more work to do, and now the University of Missouri must move forward -- united by a commitment to excellence, and respect and tolerance for all," Nixon added. Enditem