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Seg. 1: Missouri Education Board Vacancies Stall Decisions. Seg. 2: Mizzou After 2015 Protests.

A large crowd of people outside. They are holding up fists at a protest and there are people with cameras near them.
Tyler Adkisson
/
KBIA 91.3
In 2015, students at the University of Missouri-Columbia organized to protest the school administration's response to racism on campus. Enrollment numbers dipped in the years that followed.

Segment 1: With only three of eight seats occupied, Missouri's Board of Education has gone months without a meeting.

Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens wasn't short on contentious relationships in Jefferson City. One of them? The state's Board of Education, which lost its commissioner in December and has operated without a quorum since. Today, we learned what the vacancies have meant for the state's public and charter schools, and got some insight about how new Gov. Mike Parson may handle the situation.

Segment 2, starting at 18:45: University of Missouri administrators work to boost the school's reputation and applicant numbers after fallout from student protests. 

When students at the University of Missouri-Columbia called attention to racism on campus and the administration's response to it, national media outlets paid attention. In the subsequent years, enrollment dropped but, with new leadership at the helm, the tide is starting to turn. For the latest on Missouri's flagship university, we chatted with a reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education about her recent article, headlined "Mizzou's Freshman Class Shrank by a Third Over 2 Years. Here's How It's Trying to Turn That Around."

When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.