Fayneese S. Miller, who helmed Hamline University as it became the focal point of a national debate over academic freedom this past winter, has announced she will step down as president.
In a news conference on Monday, Miller criticized journalists for “reporting on a false narrative” around the controversy that brought the small, Minnesotan, liberal-arts college to national attention. Nevertheless, Miller attributed her coming retirement, in June 2024, mostly to her desire to reunite with her family. Her husband lives in Vermont, and earlier in the pandemic they did not see each other for a year and a half, she said.
“Do know I leave my heart when I leave Hamline University,” she said. “I leave my heart.”
Hamline, which has about 3,000 students, made headlines after Erika López Prater, an adjunct faculty member, displayed a historical painting of the Prophet Muhammad in her fall class. Many Muslims consider it forbidden to look upon renderings of the prophet’s face. A student complained about the presentation to López Prater, then to the administration. López Prater had warned students in her syllabus ahead of the display and again verbally in class, but the student appeared to have been taken by surprise anyway, and was deeply offended.
The university initially described the decision to show the image as “Islamophobic” but later walked back that criticism. López Prater has sued the university, alleging religious discrimination and defamation.
López Prater’s department didn’t offer her another contract to teach after her fall class finished, which she believed was because of her showing of the painting. Administrators later told The Chronicle that was not the case. “Hamline University absolutely supports the teaching of this material,” Marcela Kostihova, dean of Hamline’s College of Liberal Arts, said in January. Instead, Kostihova suggested the problem lay in part in how López Prater handled the student’s complaint. “What I have trouble with is the response to a difficult situation,” Kostihova said.
In Monday’s news conference, Miller reiterated Hamline’s support for academic freedom. “We also, however, believe that when we are in this space, those who come to us to learn, to be educated, to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that Hamline University provides, need to be respected,” she said.
Nevertheless, scholars across the nation blasted Hamline’s administration for curtailing López Prater’s academic freedom. The American Association of University Professors planned to investigate. Hamline’s faculty voted in favor of a statement asking Miller to resign. Miller had at least a few supporters among the faculty, however. Rebecca A. Neal, an associate professor of education and the only tenured Black woman on the faculty, found Miller, who was Hamline’s first African American president, to be an effective leader. Neal pointed to a successful capital campaign. She also said that during whole-of-faculty meetings, her colleagues seemed disdainful of Miller. “Why then do faculty, who are predominantly white, have such disdain for the president, who happens to be Black?” Neal said.
Hamline’s full-time faculty is about 80 percent white, according to the most recent federal data available. In contrast, 44 percent of last fall’s incoming freshmen were people of color.
After the faculty vote, some Hamline student leaders signed a letter praising Miller and her attentiveness to student concerns.
Asked why Miller was retiring at this time, Ellen E. Watters, chair of Hamline’s Board of Trustees, deferred the question to Miller, and her remarks about her family. “Eight years is a pretty good tenure for college presidents these days,” Watters said. “These are hard jobs. We were fortunate to have Dr. Miller while we did.”
Watters called Miller’s “focus on students” one of her “greatest strengths” and “a legacy we want to continue.” “At the same time, we want to clearly state our foundational principles around academic freedom and freedom of speech,” Watters said. “They can coexist. We can be an inclusive and welcoming campus, and we can honor academic freedom and invite civil discourse.”
