The Latest: Missouri Hunger-striker joins celebration

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

12:40 p.m.

A University of Missouri graduate student who endured a week-long hunger strike to protest the administration's handling of racial issues has joined celebrating demonstrators on the Columbia campus.

Jonathan Butler tweeted that he was ending his hunger strike after university system President Tim Wolfe announced his resignation Monday.

Butler, whose hunger strike began Nov. 2, appeared weak and unsteady as two people helped him past a human chain and into a sea of celebrants. Many broke into dance at seeing him.

Black student groups have complained for months about the administration's handling of racial issues, including slurs that have been directed at minority students. They got a boost over the weekend when 30 black football players said they wouldn't take part in team activities until Wolfe was gone.

---

12:20 p.m.

Gov. Jay Nixon says the resignation of the University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe was a necessary step toward ''healing and reconciliation'' at the school.

The Democratic governor issued his statement Monday after Wolfe announced that he was stepping down amid criticism of his handling of racial issues.

Black student groups at the school's flagship campus in Columbia have been complaining for months over the university's handling of such matters, including racial slurs that have been directed at students.

The issue came to a head over the weekend when 30 black members of Missouri's football team said they wouldn't take part in team activities until Wolfe was removed.

After Wolfe's announcement, a black graduate student said he was ending his week-long hunger strike meant to force the president's ouster.

---

11:50 a.m.

An adjunct professor at the University of Missouri says the school has had racial problems for decades.

Carl Kenney, a 1986 Missouri graduate who is also the pastor of a local church, says the current problems on campus run much deeper than the leadership of university system President Tim Wolfe, who announced Monday that he's resigning.

Kenney says minority students and faculty feel as if they don't belong on campus unless they are football or basketball players. He says the atmosphere has been tense on campus since the university didn't respond last year to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Kenney says that even though the racial problems aren't new, it took a threatened strike by 30 black football players to get the administration to act.

---

11:20 a.m.

Protesting students and faculty members are celebrating the University of Missouri System president's announcement that he is resigning amid anger over his treatment of racial issues.

The students and educators at the system's flagship campus in Columbia hugged and chanted when President Tim Wolfe's announced Monday that he was stepping down.

Katelyn Brown, a white sophomore from Liberty, said she wasn't necessarily aware of chronic racism at the school. But she applauded the efforts of black students groups who have complained for months about racial slurs and inequality on the overwhelmingly white Columbia campus.

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.

---

10:55 a.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 Wolfe'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.

This item has been changed to correct a reference to resigning University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe, who was erroneously referred to as Tim Wright on first reference.

---

10:35 a.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.''

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.