Missouri Student Ends Hunger Strike, President Resigns [UPDATE]

The latest on the protests and turmoil over racially charged incidents at the University of Missouri (all times local):

11:55 p.m.

A University of Missouri graduate student says he will end his hunger strike now that the university system's president has resigned.

Jonathan Butler, who started his hunger strike Nov. 2, told CNN that he welcomes President Tim Wright's resignation announcement Monday but that the university still has a long way to go to make minority students feel welcome.

Butler says the university system's governing board needs to listen to more minority faculty and student voices so that situations like this don't happen again.

Black student groups have been complaining for months about racial slurs and other slights on the system's overwhelmingly white flagship campus in Columbia. Their efforts got a boost over the weekend when 30 black football players announced they wouldn't participate in team activities until Wolfe was removed.

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10:35 p.m.

University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe says he hopes the school community uses his resignation as a way to "move forward together."

Wolfe said Monday at a special meeting of the system's governing board that he takes "full responsibility for the frustration" students had expressed regarding racial issues and that it "is clear" and "real."

Black student groups have been complaining for months about racial slurs and other slights on the system's overwhelmingly white flagship campus in Columbia. Their efforts got a boost over the weekend when 30 black football players announced they wouldn't participate in team activities until Wolfe was removed.

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10:20 a.m.

The president of the University of Missouri System says he is resigning amid student criticism of his handling of racial issues.

President Tim Wolfe said Monday that his resignation is effective immediately.

The announcement came at a special meeting of the university system's governing body, the Board of Curators.

Black student groups have been complaining for months about racial slurs and other slights on the system's overwhelmingly white flagship campus in Columbia. Their efforts got a boost over the weekend when 30 black football players announced they wouldn't participate in team activities until Wolfe was removed.

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9:15 a.m.

The student government at the University of Missouri's flagship campus has added its voice to those calling for the school president to resign immediately.

The Missouri Students Association, which represents the 27,000 undergraduates at the system's Columbia campus, called for President Tim Wolfe to step down in a letter sent to the Missouri System Board of Curators on Sunday night.

The students say there has been an increase in "tension and inequality with no systemic support" since last year's fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in Ferguson.

The group Concerned Student 1950 and black members of the football team want Wolfe to step down over his handling of race and discrimination at the flagship school of the four-campus system.

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8:25 a.m.

Some University of Missouri undergraduate students are attending class despite two student groups calling for walkouts in solidarity with protesters who want the system president to resign.

Brendan Merz, a senior undergraduate heading to an economics class Monday, says the protests haven't affected him at all. Merz says the protests are "a little excessive."

The Steering Committee of the Forum on Graduate Rights and the Coalition of Graduate Workers called Sunday for walkouts of student workers out of support for protesters seeking the removal of President Tim Wolfe.

The group Concerned Student 1950 and black members of the football team are calling for Wolfe to step down over his handling of race and discrimination at the flagship school of the four-campus system.

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1 a.m.

Members of the governing body of the University of Missouri system are set for a special meeting amid ongoing protests over matters of race and discrimination at the system's flagship school.

The University of Missouri Board of Curators is to meet Monday at 10 a.m. on the system's Columbia campus.

According to an agenda provided in a statement announcing the meeting, part of the meeting will be closed to the public.

The statement says Missouri law allows the group to meet in a private "executive session" to discuss topics including privileged communications with university counsel or personnel matters.

A university spokesman didn't immediately respond to questions about whether the group would address the status of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe. Wolfe has been the target of protests by students, including 32 black football players who announced they will not participate in team activities until he is removed. One black graduate student is on a hunger strike.

Wolfe has given no indication he intends to step down.