Gonzaga hires professor fired from U. of Missouri for 'some muscle' comment, pushing at protest

SPOKANE -- Gonzaga University has hired a professor recently fired from another university after being captured on video pushing a student photojournalist out of a campus protest, shouting for "some muscle" to help remove the student.

According to the Gonzaga University website, professor Melissa Click was hired to a one-year, non-tenure track position as the lecturer in the department of communication studies.

Click served as a communications professor at the University of Missouri until she was fired earlier this year for calling for "some muscle" and ejecting a student journalist from protests on the University of Missouri campus, the Kansas City Star reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_1623858865&feature=iv&src_vid=xRlRAyulN4o&v=1S3yMzEee18

The video of the ejection quickly went viral, and Click was roundly criticized.  The city prosecutor brought a charge against Click for pushing the photojournalist's camera away, but the charges were later dropped.

Gonzaga University acknowledged the critique of Click's actions at her former school in a press release Friday.

"She was very transparent and clear about some of the events at Missouri," Communication Studies Department chair Jonathan Rossing said in a release. "So there was no surprise or anything. After the national search and the screens took place, she emerged as the top candidate based on her record for teaching."

Click taught at the University of Missouri for 12 years.