Speaking Truth and Acting with Integrity: Confronting Challenges of Campus Racial Climate

Uses the University of Missouri–Columbia (MU) and the University of Missouri System (UM System)1 as a case site for this report, having experienced a highly visible racial crisis in the 2015–16 academic year. The university’s openness to being studied provides a unique opportunity for the nation to learn important lessons about the recovery process on college campuses following a racial crisis. Three key outcomes were sought from this work: (1) to understand what led up to the crisis; (2) to understand perceptions of leadership during the crisis in 2015; and (3) to understand what it has taken for the University of Missouri to move forward after the crisis. The lessons and insights learned from the initial stages of this case study are the focus of this report.