Letter to Hamline Faculty and Staff
February 8, 2023
Dear Hamline University Faculty and Staff:
One of my great satisfactions as president of Hamline University has been in my continual efforts to support you—our faculty and staff. The challenges to Hamline during my tenure have been real, but we weathered every storm and have emerged stronger for our collective efforts.
When I became president of Hamline University in July of 2015, I was encouraged by what we could accomplish together. In just a few short years, we have done much. We have strengthened the curriculum for students. Increased our scholarship and financial support for students. We have diversified our campus in terms of student demographics, especially race, ethnicity, class, identity and sexual orientation. We have continued to support the professional growth of both faculty and staff. We have raised the visibility of Hamline through the appointment of a distinguished university professor and through the important research that so many of you are doing, as well as through the community partnerships that have been fostered.
As a small university, we have learned how to do more with less. We have been able to identify particular areas for attention and to make needed changes. Budgets have been balanced for the last eight years, though they have been tight. Yet, through the hard work of all of us, we have been able to budget for merit increases for six out of the last eight years.
When COVID descended on our nation unexpectedly, it had an impact upon our Hamline community in ways we never imagined and hope never happens again. Yet, like the phoenix bird we rose from the fire. Faculty and staff alike adjusted to the changed reality and made it possible for our students to continue with their studies and campus activities.
As Maya Angelou opined, “and still I rise,” this is our moment to rise again. It is also our moment to do as John Wesley asked of us all—to do “all the good we can.”
In 1957, to an audience in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” To echo Dr. King’s words, my question is, what will we do for each other?
I have asked each of our campus organizations—HUSC, HUSA, Faculty Council—to select at least two members from their organization to serve on a planning committee for the community conversations that are so much needed at Hamline right now. HUSC also has planned community conversations. One is scheduled for February 7th and the other is February 15th. If Hamline is to continue to rise, I strongly urge you to participate in the community conversations. It is for our love of Hamline and its future that I hope you will do so.
Sincerely,
Fayneese Miller
President
Retired (disabled) faculty from another university • Feb 11, 2023 at 11:32 am
I realize my voice shall not carry much weight as an outside party, but speaking as an academic observer with no personal stake in the outcome: I cannot understand how your community will begin to heal if you are so unwilling to address the current crisis directly and honestly. This is especially true when the dialogue you are transparently skirting is so essential and important for your students and teachers to have right now. This is a critical time in which an open, positive discussion is absolutely vital. The fact that professors must respond anonymously to avoid further retribution for expressing their opinions speaks volumes about the crux of the problem you are struggling to address.
Touting abstract accomplishments in academic diversity while ignoring a major crisis in leadership on these same diversity issues is tone deaf, and I fear it will cause further harm to this institution’s reputation at a delicate moment in which it is already in crisis over messaging from leadership. People of good faith could (and should!) hold differing opinions on a controversial decision affecting faculty and students, but until you stop deflecting and avoiding the issue, Hamline cannot move forward.
I suspect the largest reason faculty members are concerned is the clear unwillingness by members of the administration to assume good faith in those who disagree with your decisions. Several times thus far administrators have, rather than fostering healthy dialogue, accused anypony who disagrees with a single point of view of blatant bigotry and intentional harm toward students and the University. You refuse to admit any fault in creating an environment hostile to discussion. This is an ironic but notable synecdoche of the underlying issue: your willingness to compel the censorship of speech because it is uncomfortable, under the presumption of harm regardless to the honesty of its intent.
Until you are willing to publicly acknowledge that a difference of opinion does not imply willful prejudice and show a true willingness to assume good faith in those who disagree with your personal beliefs, this wound will continue to fester.
Chris Wyatt • Feb 11, 2023 at 7:11 am
This letter is an exercise in unmitigated gall. The academic world waits for only two acts from president Miller: genuine contrition, and prompt resignation.
Mr. Smith • Feb 11, 2023 at 1:32 pm
I’d say “an exercise in unmitigated gall” sums things up nicely. Do you know what’s galling besides her audacity? President Miller receives over $500,000 per annum to run an institute of higher learning, yet she crafts prose like a freshman enrolled in a remedial writing course. I think President Miller should resign because she’s demonstrated an inability to lead throughout this crisis, but it’s also a little wild that she landed this position in the first place, given how she writes.
Anonymous Observer • Feb 13, 2023 at 9:49 am
Unhelpful and unrelated to the issue at hand. If you don’t have anything constructive to say, don’t say anything at all. Just listen. We don’t need to hear your voice. It’s polluting an important conversation.
Mr. Smith • Feb 13, 2023 at 3:02 pm
My comment might be unhelpful because it states the obvious, but how is it unrelated to the issues at hand? The faculty called for President Miller’s resignation because her actions are harming Hamline’s reputation, and they no longer have faith in her ability to lead. My comment noted that President Miller has demonstrated an inability to lead throughout this crisis, in part because her public messaging is, quite frankly, embarrassing. It’s hard to lead Hamline convincingly when one’s messaging is painfully incoherent, obfuscatory, often trite, and littered with misspellings and incomplete sentences.
Scott Gray • Mar 8, 2023 at 1:10 pm
Now that you’ve mentioned the poor writing, I can’t unsee it. She has grammatical errors in practically every other sentence. She definitely has no idea when (and when not) to use commas.
Alum • Feb 13, 2023 at 3:47 pm
Respectfully, I believe this observation is relevant. The poor quality of the Presidents’ writing is very troubling and even disturbing. Ultimately the arguments matter most, and those have also been incoherent. The characterization of this letter as “freshman remedial writing” is closer to reality than hyperbole.
Also, I am concerned by your statement that this commenter’s voice doesn’t need to be heard. That is an authoritarian tendency that started this whole thing.
An adjunct • Feb 9, 2023 at 12:00 am
President Miller,
What entitles a president whose leadership is in crisis to speak on behalf of ‘us’? Merely occupying the office is not enough at that point. Genuine leadership would require a real, and successful, effort to establish that the president does speak for those over whom she presides. Yet your recent letters to the campus don’t create that confidence. They are transparent attempts to narrate a trite inspirational story that subsumes differences, disagreements, and disputes without addressing them. Stories and quotations won’t do the trick. You need to show that you can directly and relevantly speak to the concerns of the parties to the controversy, and of everyone else with a stake in how Hamline moves forward.
For my part, I do not see how that can be done if you persist in doing business as usual, passing over the fact that Hamline’s use of adjunct instructors has enabled its budget-balancing, and was the key reason your administration believed its nonrenewal of Dr. Lopez Prater would and should go unquestioned.
Until you address that reality, I could not affirm that you speak for me, and I don’t see how faculty in general could affirm that you speak for them.
Mr. Smith • Feb 8, 2023 at 9:51 pm
It’s a little sad that President Miller addressed this rambling letter to faculty. Either she has a preternatural ability to avoid the elephant in the room, or the word “resign” doesn’t mean what she thinks it means.
L Libhardt • Feb 11, 2023 at 12:58 am
Miller should go. The vote overwhelmingly said they don’t want her anymore. Now she is refusing to leave? Take her salary away and force her out !!!
Anonymous Community Member • Feb 13, 2023 at 10:30 am
Don’t be foolish. Mob rule is not the appropriate tack to take. The letter is a signal to President Miller, one among many, and is not some kind of binding vote. If President Miller chooses to resign, fine. Otherwise, let’s let the conversation play out as a community and allow the appropriate process to unfold. If the board of trustees votes to remove her, fine. If not, fine. We must stand strong in our conviction that justice will prevail. We must not indulge our lesser Angels for the sake of some empty victory. If we want truth, justice, and love to win out we must act accordingly.