Gonzaga reacts to wave of criticism over hiring of fired University of Missouri professor Melissa Click

Hundreds of comments were left on Gonzaga University’s Facebook page over the weekend by people dismayed by the hiring of fired University of Missouri professor Melissa Click.

Click was hired as a one-year, non-tenured lecturer in Gonzaga’s Communications Studies Department.

She was fired from the University of Missouri after a video of a campus protest last year showed her calling for “muscle” to remove student journalists from the event. The video from November went viral, as well as a second video showing her cursing at a police officer at another campus protest in October.

Some of those commenting on Facebook simply expressed their disappointment while others called for a boycott or said they would no longer donate to the university.

No one at the university was willing to be interviewed Tuesday, but university spokeswoman Mary Joan Hahn released a statement.

“We are well aware of the discussion prompted by our hiring of Dr. Melissa Click,” the statement read. “We are logging phone calls and emails, and listening closely and carefully to what folks have to say, paying particular attention to members of the Gonzaga University family. We sincerely appreciate that students, alumni and other members of the Gonzaga family care about this University.”