COLUMBIA, Mo. – Former University of Missouri system president Tim Wolfe dropped a bombshell Wednesday when an email he wrote to his supporters became public from the Columbia Daily-Tribune.
In the email dated on Jan. 19, Wolfe talks about his perspective of the events that initially led to his resignation and called out everyone from members of the Missouri legislature, the MU Board of Curators, former Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, and interim MU President Mike Middleton.
Wolfe said that while he had received offers from national media organizations for interviews about the situation, but he declined “to protect the brand of our university and our state.”
“Unfortunately, my silence has resulted in my name being attached unfairly to the issues of racism and incompetent leadership,” he wrote in the letter. “As I have stated, I am willing to accept some of the responsibility for what happened. I made the mistake of hiring Bowen Loftin and I trusted the Board of Curators to support my decisions and to do what is in the best interest of the University of Missouri System rather than to cave into politicians and special interest groups with agendas that are contrary to the mission of the university.”
Now, however, his grievances have been aired. He began the letter by saying that Loftin had caused massive disruption at the university for his institution of new policies towards Greek life on campus, forcing Vice Chancellor Hal Williamson to retire, and angering graduate students, with his decisions to revoke their health insurance, and the faculty, with his testimony on Planned Parenthood.
Wolfe also said Loftin colluded with Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, to create that testimony in front of the Senate Sanctity of Life Committee.
The ousted president had more words for Schaefer. Wolfe alleges that the senator and candidate for attorney general arranged meetings with him in attempts to pressure him into stopping law professor Josh Hawley from running for attorney general by taking away Hawley’s leave of absence and interfering in Hawley’s tenure process.
Schaefer responded by saying Wolfe’s allegations were a redirection.
“Even though he resigned, former President Wolfe refuses to take any responsibility for leaving the University of Missouri system,” Schaefer said. “In an attempt to extort taxpayer dollars for an extravagant golden parachute, he is attempting to revise history and blame everyone but himself.”
Wolfe then said members of the Board of Curators used their positions to advance personal agendas and that information discussed in private board meetings was often leaked to politicians and the media.
Then, he spoke about the cozy relationship between Mike Middleton and the de facto leader of the Concerned Student 1950 movement, Jonathan Butler, who achieved fame and notoriety for his hunger strike to remove Wolfe from office. He asked rhetorically why the board had decided to hire a leader of the diversity movement on campus when he had apparently done little to curb racial disparity.
Wolfe ended his letter with a call for action to the recipients of his email to get the university to resolve his contract negotiation so he could be a positive influence on the university in the future. He sees it now as one in danger.
“I believe the University of Missouri is under attack and current leadership from the Board on down is frozen,” he said. “They are at risk of being defunded by the General Assembly (over $500m) and you have already read about the drop in enrollment projections. Without change, the odds of the Board’s ability to attract decent candidates for the next President are very low.”
UPDATED 6:24 p.m.: Added the comment from Sen. Kurt Schaefer.
