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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A suspended University of Missouri assistant professor who drew national attention for her run-ins with student journalists during race-related protests at the university last year has been working with a public relations firm to try to repair her image and says she hopes to keep her job.
Melissa Click was caught on video last November calling for "some muscle" to remove student videographer Mark Schierbecker from the protest area at the public university. Click was suspended pending further investigation. She also was charged with misdemeanor assault, though a prosecutor said he'll drop the matter if she completes community service.
In a series of recent interviews, the assistant communications professor has expressed contrition and said she wants to stay at Missouri.
"My mistake is just one part of who I am," she told The Columbia Missourian (http://bit.ly/1Qet5Vo ). "I want to stay at MU. I deserve to be heard and I deserve to be treated fairly, and I'm going to fight to be treated fairly."
Click's effort to modify her image is being handled by Status Labs, a Texas-based online reputation management firm. Status Labs contacted Click in January after she was suspended and is helping "get her side of the story out there efficiently," senior media director Lacy Rushin said in an email.
The company has provided black and white portraits of her, which contrast with the widely circulated photo of an angry Click pulled from Schierbecker's video. After the interviews, the company plans to try to create a "new media cycle" for Click by feeding new content to the first page of her Google search results. The company also plans to target students, faculty and administrators on social media to promote its message, Rushin said.
Click was filmed Nov. 9 confronting Schierbecker near the Concerned Student 1950 camp on the campus after the resignation of former University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe. She says ordering Schierbecker away from inside a human wall around the camp and calling for "some muscle" to remove him was poor judgment. She said she wasn't aware who Schierbecker was.
"I thought, 'I don't want a camera in my face. I don't know who you are,'" she said. "It was not my best moment. I could have been much more respectful. I should have slowed down."
Click said her call for "some muscle" was meant for people who could help her defuse the situation and she never meant to call for violence.
In suspending Click last month, the university system's governing board of curators ordered an investigation by its general counsel to determine whether additional discipline "is appropriate." The curators set no deadline to finish the investigation. Click's supporters have included faculty members, 116 of whom signed a letter released Jan. 5, and protesters who interrupted a Feb. 4 curators meeting.
Under the deal Click reached with prosecutors, she must complete 20 hours of community service but will face no jail time or fines if she stays out of trouble for a year.
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Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com
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