Hamline Faculty Calls on President to Step Down

Hamline University’s full-time faculty members voted 71 to 12 on Monday to call for the resignation of President Fayneese Miller, The Pioneer Press reported.

Miller’s administration called it “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic” and “an act of intolerance” for an adjunct professor, Erika López Prater, to have shown an image of Muhammad in class in the fall. López Prater subsequently did not get rehired for the spring semester. Academic freedom advocates have criticized Miller and have noted that López Prater warned her students about what she was going to do.

“We are distressed that members of the administration have mishandled this issue and great harm has been done to the reputation of Minnesota’s oldest university,” said a statement the faculty adopted. “As we no longer have faith in President Miller’s ability to lead the university forward, we call upon her to immediately tender her resignation to the Hamline University Board of Trustees.”

A Hamline spokesman said Miller was discussing with her team how to respond.

In a joint statement Jan. 17 with the chair of Hamline’s Board of Trustees, Miller said “sometimes we misstep” and that it was “flawed” to have used the word “Islamophobic” to describe the incident. The statement came out the same day López Prater sued the university.