Professors, graduate students and other supporters of the soon-to-be-closed University of Missouri Press attended Tuesday’s UM Board of Curators meeting. The group attended to voice their support for the press, but was not offered a chance to speak.
Instead, they sat silently through the meeting, waiting for their turn to comment. UMKC Professor Emeritus Dan Jaffe traveled to the meeting from Kansas City, but he wasn’t upset about not being able to comment.
“I’m not really worried if they hear me. I want them to hear me to the extent that they realize that there is a vast constituency that says we’re not gonna sell out on the university,” Jaffe said.
MU history professor Jeff Pasley says the closing of the press means lost opportunities for his graduate students, who typically look to the University Press as their first choice for publishing.
“I have three or four students of my own and I know a couple who have completed Ph.D.s, a couple in there have done Missouri history projects, who are having a much harder time. Not only are they having a harder time publishing, but they’re feeling devalued,” Pasley said.
About 30 people originally came to protest, but as curators carried on with the meeting without acknowledging the small crowd, many left early.
