Hamline University President Fayneese Miller said she will retire effective next year, making the announcement a few months after the faculty called for her to resign over her handling of an uproar over Islamophobia and academic freedom.
Ms. Miller plans to retire June 30, 2024, nine years after becoming in July 2015 the 20th president of the university located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“It has been an honor and privilege to lead Hamline University, an institution that values social justice, equity, inclusion, and civic engagement through its service-learning opportunities for students and curriculum offerings,” said Ms. Miller in a Monday statement released by the university.
Her announcement came after the faculty council voted overwhelmingly in January for her to step down, pushing back after an adjunct professor was dropped over an art history lecture that included a Medieval-era painting of Muhammad. A Muslim student complained about the lecture.
In a Dec. 9 email to staff, Ms. Miller and David Everett, associate vice president for inclusive excellence, said that “respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom.”
The adjunct professor, Erika Lopez Prater, initiated a lawsuit against the university in January. That day, Ms. Miller and Hamline Board of Trustees Chairwoman Ellen Watters walked back the university’s previous Islamophobia comments, saying “sometimes we misstep” and promising to hold discussions on the issue.
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Even so, the faculty council called a week later for Ms. Miller to “immediately tender her resignation.”
“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 the council in a Jan. 24 statement.
The university said Monday that “Dr. Miller has been an exceptional, dynamic, and inclusive leader for Hamline with a strong commitment to academic program development, diversity, and fundraising.”
“Under Dr. Miller, the University has experienced significant growth in the number of students applying for and successfully receiving national awards like the Truman Scholarship and Fulbright Awards,” said the statement. “In 2018, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, selected Hamline as one of only ten Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation campuses in the United States.”
Ms. Miller, who holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Texas Christian University, is the second female and first Black president of Hamline.
The university plans to conduct a national search for her successor.
“Dr. Miller has been an innovative and transformational leader for Hamline,” said Ms. Watters in a statement. “Through her strategic vision and ability to navigate complex issues, she ably has led the University through a time of growth and change, and she has done so by centering the needs and well-being of Hamline students in her work.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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