Bermudians at the racially troubled campus of the University of Missouri have spoken of their alarm ­— as well as their hope.

After tensions peaked this week, Ty-Ron Douglas, an assistant professor at the university, and Kerri Furbert, a student in her final year, described their experiences.

A flagship state university attended by 35,000 students, the University of Missouri has been roiled since September by episodes of racism aimed at black students.

The outcry from students of colour, combined with what many decried as a lacklustre response from university leaders, led to the resignation on Monday of president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.

“We are fine, we are doing well — in the midst of these tense times, we are standing strong,” Dr Douglas told The Royal Gazette. “People’s voices are being heard. There are some specific instances that are problematic, but there is also hope.”

Many students avoided campus after Wednesday, when two different white students were arrested on other campuses in the state after posting racial threats on social media.

Kerri Furbert, a black Bermudian senior studying sport management, said she would be returning to campus today after two days off, owing to cancelled classes and fear.

“Yesterday, when everyone was afraid, campus was very empty — it was definitely antsy,” Ms Furbert, 21, told The Royal Gazette. “I feel a little bit better now.”

Affirming her support and liking for the school, Ms Furbert said she had initially been taken aback by some of the racial attitudes she encountered there.

“It’s something I am really, really not used to, because back in Bermuda it does not happen to this kind of extreme. I have never really experienced racism that far.

“There are people out here who will call people by the N-word, and I never experienced that back home.”

The incidents may have been sparked in September when Payton Head, the president of the student government, complained online of having racial epithets hurled at him from the back of a pick-up truck.

Subsequent racist insults spread outrage through the student body.

Protests included a threat by the university’s football team, the Missouri Tigers, to boycott a match, while demonstrations of solidarity spread to other colleges.

“I just think people finally have had enough, and felt they should speak up” Ms Furbert said. “It has been going on for months, these incidents toward black students.”

Describing the university as 77 per cent white and 7 per cent black, she said she had occasionally felt as if people were hostile to her skin colour.

“When I first came here it wasn’t too bad, but after a while I realised I got treated differently,” she said, recalling how she and her boyfriend, also black, opted to leave a Subway restaurant when they sensed vehement dislike from staff.

After linking arms with student demonstrators around a hunger striker in the aftermath of Mr Wolfe’s resignation, Ms Furbert expressed hope that others would gain some awareness into the struggles faced by their fellow students.

She was also heartened by yesterday’s news that Mike Middleton, a black professor emeritus of law, had been appointed interim president.

Dr Douglas, an assistant professor at the department of educational leadership and policy analysis, said he had mixed emotions “both professional and personal” about the protests.

The hunger striker, graduate student Jonathan Butler, is “someone I knew well”, he said, as are members of Concerned Student 1950 — a protest group named after the year that students of colour were first admitted.

Dr Douglas noted that Ferguson, Missouri, where the 2014 shooting of a black teen by white police sparked nationwide protests, was not far from “Mizzou”, as the university is known.

“Nothing happens in a vacuum, and there are larger tensions going on nationally,” he said, also pointing to the nearing end of the tenure of Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States.

“A generation of young people went through middle school and high school with the sounds of ‘yes, we can’ in their ears. The reality for many of them as they transition is that they realise they are still being told in many spaces, ‘no, we can’t’.

“The reality is, this is not just a Mizzou issue. There are protests taking place nationally.”

He added: “Things have to be revealed so that they can be healed.

“It’s in our faces now. This is the time for those of us in a leadership position to lead. I feel very hopeful.”

A group visiting from his alma mater, Oakwood University, included Bermudians Vashon Williams, Shani Smith, Fiona Douglas and adjunct professor Lucy Douglas. They arrived during high tensions, but reported a positive experience of Mizzou, and sent a group picture of solidarity to the university.

Dr Douglas said he had also received a supportive message from veteran Bermudian educator Earl “Gabby” Hart.

Saying he was “seeking to be a bridge builder”, he said: “It’s good having strong, serious conversations about realities that some know every day, and others have the privilege of ignoring.”