In November angry race protesters at the University of Missouri in Columbia forced the campus president and chancellor to resign.
The University of Missouri will close two dorms in the fall semester.
Admissions to the university are down this year by 1,500 students after the Black Lives Matter race protests last year.
The Examiner reported:
Following a drop in students applying for housing, the University of Missouri will not be placing students in two dorms for the fall 2016 semester.
Mizzou will be closing the Respect and Excellence halls (ironic names, given the circumstances) in order to utilize dorm space “in the most efficient manner” to keep costs down.
In March, the university announced that it saw a sharp drop in admissions for the coming school year, and will have 1,500 fewer students. This will lead to a $32 million budget shortfall for the school, prompting the need to close the dorms in order to save money.
“Dear university community,” wrote interim chancellor Hank Foley in an email to the school back in March. “I am writing to you today to confirm that we project a very significant budget shortfall due to an unexpected sharp decline in first-year enrollments and student retention this coming fall. I wish I had better news.”
The school announced a 5 percent cut “to all annual recurring general revenue budgets” and an “across-the-board hiring freeze for all units on campus.” The dorm closures are only the latest cost-cutting measures.
The school announced the closures on its Residents’ Online Access to Rooms website. The two closed dorms contained Freshmen Interest Groups, special communities for first-year students housed within the dorms, which the university said could be available in other dorms.
“Due to an expected decrease in the number of students needing housing at Mizzou this year, Residential Life will not be offering space in Respect or Excellence Halls at this time,” the university announced. “This is an effort to ensure we are using our halls in the most efficient manner, keeping our costs as low as possible so we can provide our students with the best possible living environments at an affordable cost.”
