Official: Mizzou lost $2M in donations after unrest

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- About $2 million in donations to the University of Missouri have been lost in fallout from the unrest at the campus in Columbia, a top university official said Thursday.

Vice chancellor for advancement Tom Hiles said several donors who had pledged money to the university have pulled back their pledges, although the vast majority of lost money was from seven to 10 big donors.

Simmering tensions over what student activists saw as administrators' indifference to racial problems at the Columbia campus came to a head in the November protests.

Demonstrators were backed by some members of the football team, who threatened to refuse to play.

University system president Tim Wolfe and Columbia campus chancellor R. Bowen Loftin resigned at the height of the unrest.

The protests themselves angered some donors, including many who felt the university ceded too much power to students, Hiles said.

Others who pulled their money cited the actions of Melissa Click, an assistant professor who called for "some muscle" to remove a student videographer from a public protest area.