Hamline faculty “no longer have faith” in President Miller
January 24, 2023
Hamline faculty have officially asked for the resignation of President Fayneese Miller. This was overwhelmingly voted in support of by the faculty.
The vote came in response to current events that have resulted from an incident in a Hamline art history class in October. Faculty characterized this period as a “crisis facing the Hamline community concerning academic freedom.”
The Faculty vote occurred during an emergency Faculty of the Whole meeting. The measure passed with 71 faculty in favor, 12 against and nine abstentions out of a total 92 voting faculty. Faculty characterize Miller’s administration as having mishandled the situation in a way they believe can only be resolved under new leadership.
In the Faculty’s Statement, they first expressed that they stand for both academic freedom and the education of all students. In this, they recognized the importance of diversity to the classroom and to Hamline as a whole. They both respect and support the right for all voices and perspectives to be heard.
“We believe our diversity of knowledge and experience makes us a stronger, richer community. Without this diversity, we would incompletely represent the community we strive to be,” their statement said.
Part of their claims circled around academic freedom and the importance it serves to both a “strong liberal arts education” and to “uphold the principles of democracy.”
Along with other claims they outlined, faculty stand for the right to challenge others’ views, without judgment of someone for carrying them. They also stand for intellectual debate and the right to share resources and knowledge without “fear of censorship or retaliation.”
Faculty took this opportunity to condemn the hateful and threatening speech that targets members of the community, including students. The statement also rejects what faculty called unfounded accusations of Islamophobia.” Faculty also called for fair treatment and due process for all university members.
Faculty also praised Hamline community members “who have taken the time and had the courage to speak out.” This is a message faculty have mentioned in every letter and statement they have released about this topic.
As of the time of publication, neither Miller nor Hamline Media Relations had responded to comment.
Katherine • Jan 28, 2023 at 1:46 am
I graduated from Hamline in International Studies and by 1999 found myself as the Director of Marketing for a large international professional services firm. My degree served me well, but of course, not completely as we continue to learn our entire lifetime.
That year an oil and gas conference took place in Turkmenistan. Every big oil and gas player from the West was there, as were the Presidents of the Central Asian countries of the former Soviet Union, and representatives from neighboring countries. During one of the breaks a small delegation stopped by our booth that I was manning. They picked up and paged through some tax guides. As I started to explain that our experts were nearby if they had any questions, they turned abruptly and walked away at quite a fast pace. Then, the entire room looked at me!
Unbeknown to me, the delegation that exited was from Iran. After the break was over, a colleague from a different consulting firm told me that I shouldn’t have spoken to the head of that delegation and said she had made the same mistake just a year prior. Perplexed, I carried on replenishing the tax guides delegates had taken when a man stopped by the booth. He was the head of the delegation who had just exited. His conference badge was now visible as he explained to me in perfect English ‘In my country, women don’t speak to men in public,’ he said. ‘Well, in mine we do,’ I replied. We continued to speak at length and then I introduced him to our lead partner for the region who was a male.
Why I even bring this up is because sometimes we just don’t know things we are perhaps expected to know in the real world. Had I wish I had learned about that at university? Of course. But I hadn’t. I simply didn’t know that yet and learned it in the real world instead of in the safe haven at university or from my family or friends. Luckily, a very educated Deputy of the Ministry of Energy of Iran understood that and enlightened me to that fact.
And although Hamline didn’t teach me that, most probably I was thought of poorly, the US was thought of poorly, and maybe my employer. But the gentleman was willing to explain to me that what had transpired was against his religion, yet I wondered in doing so did he also perhaps go against his beliefs? And of course, one may ask whose beliefs should be above the others in this instance. Certainly most of our employees in the Ashgabat office were Muslim and I had spoken already to several and no international incident had happened. I do not blame anyone for my lack of knowlege, for I simply didn’t know at that time what I didn’t know. We are all students our entire life. But, when my territory expanded to oversee Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries as well as northern African countries, I adjusted meetings according to the traditions of the host country.
However, at this time, I share this with the students of Hamline who may or may not support their President, because just imagine if various issues about religion or other topics were not able to even be taught or discussed at Hamline because Hamline Admin and Hamline Trustees believed in censorship. Therefore, I urge you to research exactly what censorship is and what academic freedom is and start to fully support academic freedom since you have chosen to attend a LIBERAL ARTS college, and, in fact, a METHODIST liberal arts college(!). Next, it would be very well to constructively learn from this situation that thrusted Hamline onto the world stage by engaging in open discussions with those holding a differing opinion from yourself on this subject while keeping an open mind. I also highly suggest that Hamline make it mandatory for all students to take a world religion class in future, if it doesn’t already. In addition, please open such a class up to Hamline Alumni to audit for free so that every Piper learns the important nuances of various world religions and may openly discuss them in a safe setting in future.
George Wesley, M.D. • Jan 25, 2023 at 3:42 am
One student, then later a group of students and others, wanted to deny a Hamline art history class — but symbolically, the entire Hamline University community — the right to appreciate, and perhaps be awed by, a masterpiece of Persian and Islamic art. This attempt to deny the community that educational moment was vigorously supported by the HU administration, at multiple levels in its hierarchy, and over several months. It decreed the picture “Islamophobic,” despite the fact that virtually any bona fide Islamic art scholar could have explained that the opposite was the case. To add grievous insult to this attack on academic freedom and freedom of inquiry for HU faculty and students, the professor who presented the picture in her class was ostracized in the most severe and humiliating manner. Not unjustly, Hamline now faces an existential crisis. I commend the HU faculty for stepping up in this matter. In fact, the Board of Trustees should review the professional conduct of all responsible for decision-making in these sad events.