The president of the University of Missouri system and the head of its flagship campus resigned on Monday after the football team and others on campus openly revolted over what they saw as indifference to racial tensions at the school.

President Tim Wolfe, a former business executive with no previous experience in academic leadership, took "full responsibility for the frustration" students expressed and said their complaints were "clear" and "real".

For months, black student groups had complained that Wolfe was unresponsive to racial slurs and other slights on the overwhelmingly white main campus of the state's four-college system. The complaints came to a head two days ago, when 30 black football players announced they would not play until the president left. A graduate student went on a weeklong hunger strike.