Senator Gary Romine (R-Farmington) says allowing University of Missouri leaders to police themselves on racial issues is not getting the job done. Some say changes recommended to the university about a decade ago to address racial issues haven’t been implemented.

Senator Gary Romine (R-Farmington)

Senator Gary Romine (R-Farmington)

Romine says the atmosphere needs to change immediately at Mizzou.

“It’s very frustrating that they went through a process, they’re getting ready to do another climate evaluation to determine what the environment is like. At some point, we have to do something instead of talk about it or continue to do studies,” said Romine.

State lawmakers are considering whether university budget cuts would be an appropriate way to respond to university leaders’ handling of recent turmoil at the Columbia campus. Romine says budget cuts might be necessary to force Mizzou administration into “waking up” and making improvements.

“We’ve got to do something now. That’s the reason why the legislative body has gotten involved at this point,” said Romine. “We need to step up. We are the funding mechanism for a big portion of the campus.”

Legislative concerns center around students protesting last fall about University leaders handling of incidents of racism on campus and communications professor Melissa Click being suspended with pay for calling for “some muscle” to be used on a student journalist during those protests.