Statement from President Fayneese Miller
January 26, 2023
I greatly appreciate and thank you for the opportunity to respond to the question of the recent faculty vote.
First and foremost, I want the students and the faculty to understand how deeply I appreciate them and their affection and dedication to Hamline University. At Hamline, the faculty and I both take great care in how our students receive and participate in their education. Supporting our students and honoring our mission requires both listening to the concerns of all members of our community and working collaboratively to uphold our values. I believe we can do both.
For more than 20 years, I was a classroom professor and taught under the principles of academic freedom. Today, that concept is still central to our mission at Hamline. As president of Hamline University, my charge includes upholding academic freedom as a cornerstone of higher education. I will continue to work with students, faculty and the entire Hamline University community to support the best in liberal arts education, with care and respect for all.
I am keenly aware, as is the university as a whole, of the importance of strengthening the trust and confidence both students and faculty have in this 169-year-old institution. I, as an individual, and the university as a whole, will continue to build on that trust not just through our words but also through our actions.
Fayneese Miller, PhD
President
David G. Stork • Feb 10, 2023 at 3:43 pm
President Miller engages in rank obscuration, deflection, and most-importantly, evasion from accepting responsibility for effectively firing without due process an adjunct faculty member who did nothing wrong—nothing in the slightest (by warning all, clearly and repeatedly, that she’d show a medieval painting depicting Mohammed). Given this is how the president “leads” her faculty and students, should we as scholars, employers, and citizens expect the same from Hamline’s graduates?
At the very least Miller should step down, let enlightened faculty publicly commit to the Chicago Principles guaranteeing freedom of expression among all, and start the process of replacing Miller with a president of integrity who understands and strengthens, through word and deed, academic free expression.
Katherine • Feb 2, 2023 at 2:04 am
I wish I could say I am flabbergasted by the Board of Trustees and their silence on this scandal. I am not. For is it not they who hired President Miller years ago? Is it not they who did not step in earlier to save the professor’s job? Is it not they who finally put out a joint statement TOGETHER with the President of Hamline after the world learned of and was in shock by their very own President’s actions? Yes, it was.
This scandal will become a case study, much like Kenneth Lay and Enron are. But unlike Enron where corporate greed motivated the management team, here we have a lack of professional responsibility and fudiciary duty, a blatant dismissal of their own faculty’s lack of confidence vote and demands for the President to resign, and a warped sense of doing not what is right, but that which is divisive, wrong and frankly irresponsible over and over again through lack of action.
For when great men are called upon to act, the sacrifices made for the good of all leaves nobody in doubt that the right thing is done. But when one fails to act, fails to take a solid stance, fails to right a wrong committed, nobody forgets, few forgive, and the missteps continue. Healing begins when wrongs are acknowledged, corrected, forgiven and everyone strives to move forward. Sweeping a problem under the rug is a coward’s response. It too is a loud response, so loud in fact that everyone hears it even when done in silence. Ms Watters, as Chair of the Board of Trustees, we have heard you.
Hamline, my dear beloved university, the place I learned and grew at, the place that once coveted diversity, fairness, excellence and scholarship, academic freedom, open discussions and debate, even shocking topics by guest speakers, my dear Hamline you have fallen from grace.
As an alum of Hamline University, I call for the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Hamline University, Ms Watters, to resign immediately and the remaining Board to meet, vote, and fire President Miller in order to begin to restore some semblance of reputation that Hamline once had.
Daniel • Jan 27, 2023 at 9:13 pm
As an alum of Hamline University, I would like to say that I am distressed by recent events. I graduated in 1991 and then completed theological studies at Yale Divinity School.
Hamline prepared me very well. I learned to think critically. I learned the ability to engage difficult ideas and to analyze them with perspective and knowledge. In those years, Hamline was a great institution. I remember struggling with ideas that were presented in classes. However, at Hamline, you could talk with professors who were always willing to listen and debate — either in class or during a 1:1 meeting. It’s what made a small, private liberal arts college like Hamline a place to learn and grow.
The recent events at Hamline make it all seem different now. I understand it’s a different time in history. However, I’m not convinced that the pursuit of knowledge is different.
The issues around academic freedom have been thoroughly discussed and I can’t add anything new to the conversation. All that I can say is I agree. I would also like to say that Fayneese Miller’s recent statement is thoroughly tepid and without substance. Likewise, any substantial statement from the Board of Trustees has been absent.
As a university affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Hamline likes to quote the good words of Charles Wesley:
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
In this case, “good” requires the following (among other things) in my opinion:
1. Publicly apologize and pay appropriate damages to Professor Lopez-Prater for implying that she is “Islamophobic.” Although this may go against legal advice, it would be the right thing to do.
2. Thoroughly analyze Hamline’s use of adjunct professors and provide better respect, security, and compensation.
3. Preserve and honor the value of academic freedom and safeguard it as necessary for the well-being for the development of knowledge.
4. Consider current leadership and the apparent need for change.
Hamline should, indeed, live by those words of Wesley. Instead, it now seems to be listening to the words of lawyers and factions.
Kathy • Jan 27, 2023 at 5:02 pm
Oh my…President Miller, please just do the right thing and resign. Getting fired instead and suing in this instance is not dignified nor will your reputation benefit. But, following your latest statement, we now await the Board of Trustees to fire at least Hamline’s President (and/or Dean and Cultural Excellence VP), for if they don’t dismiss those who put the university in the public eye on this and begin anew without them, the fate of the Hamline University will be sealed.
Furthermore, it is absolutely unacceptable how the President of Hamline seems not only unable to accept that her beliefs and her actions taken caused this worldwide scandal, but unwilling to take any responsibility for it, let alone apologize. “Missteps” like these are so HUGE and combined with her last 3 public statements make her appear even more unqualified that ever to have been hired as my university’s President! It is 3 months and 3 weeks too late to get a second chance. The reputation of Hamline and its survival are now what is at stake.
If Hamline Alumni and Trustees out there read this, let it be noted that until President Miller has resigned or her entire leadership group fired, I for one will withhold in protest any and all future donations to Hamline University.
Siria Staussen-Lichtman • Jan 27, 2023 at 2:19 pm
Missing from this exceedingly bland statement:
“I was wrong. I understand that now and I commit to learning the essential importance of academic freedom.”
“I apologize to the adjunct I painted in so unfair a light.”
“I apologize to Muslims whose maturity and discernment I assumed they lack.”
“I apologize to the university that cannot heal or thrive while I remain.”
“I resign.”
Mr. Smith • Jan 27, 2023 at 10:30 am
In case folks are struggling to make sense of this statement riddled with obfuscation, here’s what she’s saying in plain language:
Thanks for asking me to comment on the Hamline faculty urging me to resign. Just so you know, I still like everyone. I’ve always tried to do a good job at Hamline. I think I can still do a good job, but let’s hear what other people have to say. By the way, I’ve known about academic freedom for awhile now. It’s something I’m supposed to uphold in my job at Hamline. I’m not quitting, in case you’re wondering, so let’s be nice to each other while I figure out how to do my job better. Hamline’s been around for a long time. I want people to trust me to run the place. Let’s do some [unspecified] things so people trust me again.
David McKee • Jan 27, 2023 at 8:51 am
No admission of error. No apology. No responsibility taken for a moronic and cowardly act. Hopefully this letter serves as the final nail in her academic coffin.
Josh Soti • Jan 27, 2023 at 1:55 pm
Strongly agree. This response accepts zero responsibility for her appalling actions. Dr. Miller’s continued inability to recognize how deeply wrong she was simply underscores that she is NOT the one to repair the significant damage she continues to inflict on Hamline. Time’s up!
Paulette Will • Jan 26, 2023 at 11:32 pm
The President of Hamline University continues to evade and deflect the entire issue of academic freedom vs defaming an adjunct professor by accusing her of Islamophobia. The President of Hamline University has lost the confidence and support of the faculty. Her administration has lost all credibility and “riding it out” is not going to work. The Board of Trustees must ask for her resignation and then begin the process of examining the damage done to academic freedom and an adjunct professors’ reputation. Nothing less is acceptable.
An adjunct • Jan 26, 2023 at 10:32 pm
President Miller,
Will you commit to codifying Hamline’s protection of the academic freedom of adjuncts and to treating us equitably, with a status commensurable with that of our colleagues? Or will you continue to treat us as second-class members of the community who have no say and are denied due process?