Mizzou Appoints Michael Middleton as Interim President 

After Tim Wolfe stepped down earlier this week, the University of Missouri has appointed an interim president. Michael Middleton was chosen by the school’s governing board on Thursday.

Middleton is African-American, and, according to NBC News, was a law school professor who retired in August after 17 years as deputy chancellor. He’s coming in after Wolfe’s publicized resignation following student protests charging that he mishandled racist incidents and threats on campus.

Middleton earned his bachelor’s degree from Mizzou in 1968, and went on to become the third black student in history to graduate from the university’s law school. After college, he was a lawyer for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and came back to Mizzou in 1985 to teach. In addition, he’s worked with Columbia’s chancellor on a diversity and inclusion program for Mizzou. In 1997, according to Mizzou’s website, he was the interim Vice Provost for the Minority Affairs and Faculty Development for the University of Missouri before becoming Deputy Chancellor in 1998.