SPOKANE, Wash. --- A former University of Missouri professor who was fired after video surfaced of her yelling at a student during a protest has a new job at Gonzaga University.
Gonzaga hired former MU professor Melissa Click for a one-year, non-tenure track position as a lecturer in Gonzaga's undergraduate Communication Studies Department.
The University of Missouri fired Click in February after a video surfaced of her calling for “some muscle” to remove a student videographer from protests on the school’s campus last fall. The student, a freelancer on assignment for ESPN, argued his First Amendment rights allowed him to be in a public area.
Students and staff on the school’s campus had been protesting the treatment of African Americans by administrators.
Click had been an assistant professor in the MU Department of Communication and held a courtesy appointment at the Missouri School of Journalism. She later faced more scrutiny after a video from a different protest on campus showed her cursing at an officer trying to clear the road during the university’s homecoming parade.
"We are confident she has learned much from her experiences at the University of Missouri and believe she will uphold the rigorous standards of academic excellence demanded of Gonzaga faculty and students," said Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Mermann-Jozwiak said in a release that Click was hired through an "extensive national search process" and she was the most qualified and experienced candidate for the position.
Here's @GonzagaU's statement on hiring of fired @Mizzou professor, Melissa Click: pic.twitter.com/LWYO1TpTvA
— Mark Hanrahan (@KREMMark) September 3, 2016
Enrollment at the University of Missouri plummeted after the protests and Melissa Click debate in national media. Numerous outlets reported applications from African American students dropped by 78 percent for the fall semester. The university’s newspaper reported overall freshman enrollment was down by almost 25 percent.