Mun Choi
Mun Young Choi (; born March 19, 1964) is an American academic, Chancellor of the University of Missouri, and current President of the University of Missouri System. Prior to his appointment at Missouri he was Provost & Executive Vice President at the University of Connecticut. He has also taught at Drexel University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Columbia, Missouri. Early life and education. Choi immigrated to the United States with his parents from South Korea in 1973. He attended Leggett Primary School in Akron, OH, and Trumbull Primary School in the Andersonville neighborhood and Boone  Middle School in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL. He graduated from Stephen Tyng Mather High School in Chicago in 1983. He earned a BS degree (1987) in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1992) degrees in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. University of Missouri. On March 1, 2017, Choi became president of the four-campus University of Missouri System. On March 25, 2020, Choi agreed to serve as interim Chancellor of the University of Missouri flagship campus in Columbia (MU). This position was made permanent on July  28, making Choi the first to be both Chancellor of the University of Missouri in Columbia and President of the University of Missouri System simultaneously. In the spring of 2020, students at MU petitioned Choi to remove a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson, purchased and installed by MU alumni in 2001, from the University of Missouri's Francis Quadrangle. Choi instead proposed it be "recontextualized" with input from a task force. Choi subsequently rebuked reporters (who are also on the MU journalism faculty) for making what he called "inappropriate" social-media comments about Choi's refusal to remove the statue  and characterized the comments as attempts to undermine the university. In July of 2020, Choi and MU's provost fired the College of Education's dean, and when faced with criticism from some faculty, Choi reportedly demanded administrative support for this decision. This removal and its aftermath, along with his response regarding the Jefferson statue, has led to the criticism that Choi brooks no dissent. During the fall of 2020, some MU students said that Choi blocked them on Twitter after they expressed COVID-related health and safety concerns about conditions on campus. Examples of concerns relate to COVID-19 testing  protocols and lack of running water in some campus bathrooms. MU alumnus Christopher Bennett threatened legal action on First Amendment grounds over Choi's blocking of student accounts. MU justified Choi's actions by stating that he "has been on the receiving end of messages/tweets that were disrespectful and not constructive [and] some contained profanity."