Mun Young Choi ( ko, 최문영; born March 19, 1964) is an American academic. He currently serves as Chancellor of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

and President of the

University of Missouri System The University of Missouri System is an American state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, and ten research and technology parks. Nearly 70,000 students are cur ...

. Prior to his appointment at Missouri he was Provost & Executive Vice President at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

. He has also taught at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

and the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a Public university, public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus esta ...

. He lives in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

Early life and education

Choi was born in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Choi immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1973, settling in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

with his parents and three younger sisters at the age of nine. He attended Leggett Primary School in Akron, Ohio, and Trumbull Primary School in the Andersonville neighborhood and Boone Middle School in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He graduated from

Stephen Tyng Mather High School Stephen Tyng Mather High School (commonly known as simply Mather) is a State school, public 4–year high school located in the West Ridge, Chicago, West Ridge neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1959, Mat ...

in Chicago in 1983. He earned a BS degree (1987) in General Engineering from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

and M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1992) degrees in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

University of Missouri

On March 1, 2017, Choi became president of the four-campus

. On March 25, 2020, Choi agreed to serve as interim Chancellor of the

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 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

, 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 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 ndsome contained profanity." A faculty survey of Choi conducted in May 2022 found his performance "unsatisfactory", with the majority believing that Choi should not retain his position.

References

External links

Office of the PresidentOffice of the Chancellor

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choi, Mun 1964 births Living people Academics from Missouri American academic administrators American academics of Korean descent Drexel University faculty Leaders of the University of Missouri Mather High School alumni People from Columbia, Missouri Presidents of the University of Missouri System Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni South Korean emigrants to the United States University of Connecticut faculty University of Illinois Chicago faculty Grainger College of Engineering alumni

Early life and education

University of Missouri

See also

References

External links