Tag: Hamline University

Dumping Professor for Showing Class Muhammad Art May Be ‘Religious Discrimination,’ Court Rules

Just the News

A federal judge refused to dismiss religious discrimination claims against a private university that dumped an art history professor after she showed her class “Islamophobic” depictions of the Prophet Muhammad commissioned by Muslims, saying the “novelty” of Erika Lopez Prater’s argument didn’t make it implausible.

The order Friday by U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez means ongoing scrutiny of Hamline University, whose President Fayneese Miller announced her scheduled retirement two months after an overwhelming vote of no-confidence from faculty in the wake of Prater’s non-renewal.

Read the full story

University President in Minnesota Will Retire After Firestorm over Fired Professor Who Showed Muhammad Picture in Class

Admin

Hamline University President Fayneese Miller announced on Monday that she will retire months after she walked back an administrator’s claim that a professor’s lecture was “Islamophobic” for showing an unveiled portrait of the prophet Muhammad.

Miller will officially step down on June 30, 2024, according to the announcement sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Faculty members demanded she resign following a controversy that involved Professor Erika López Prater’s contract not being renewed for the spring semester after a student complained that she showed an unveiled portrait of the prophet Muhammad during a lecture on Islamic art.

Read the full story

Another Minnesota College Censors Art to Prevent ‘Non-Consensual Viewing’ by Muslim Students

Just the News

Two liberal arts schools six minutes from each other in St. Paul, Minn., have explicitly subordinated Islam-related academic and artistic freedom to the feelings of Muslim students in recent months, alarming faculty both nationwide and closer to home.

Macalester College temporarily shut down and then added curtains to an art exhibit depicting partially exposed figures in hijabs and niqabs “to prevent unintentional or non-consensual viewing” after Muslim students complained, the administration said in an email Feb. 6 excerpted by Minnesota immigrant news nonprofit Sahan Journal.

Read the full story

Watchdog Unveils Top 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

Admin

A free speech watchdog group Thursday morning named several prominent colleges and universities to its list of the top ten worst colleges in the country for freedom of speech based on specific times the institutions reportedly violated students’ and faculties’ rights.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) named Hamline University, Collin College, Emerson University, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Loyola University New Orleans (NOLA), Texas A&M, Pennsylvania State University, Emporia State University, Tennessee Tech University and the University of Oregon as the worst institutions for free speech in its 12th annual report, shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The report detailed the worst cases of censorship the watchdog faced at higher education institutions in 2022. 

Read the full story

Dumped Professor Sues Minnesota College for Calling Her Muhammad Depiction ‘Islamophobic’

Just the News

A small liberal arts college with social-justice roots. A community member accused of career-ending discrimination against a minority. And an administration that repeatedly trumpets those accusations, which were made by student activists and hinged on an extreme interpretation of a largely undisputed factual record. 

Those circumstances cost Ohio’s Oberlin College over $36 million in damages, interest and legal fees last year in a defamation lawsuit brought by a family-owned bakery accused of racial profiling for tackling a black student shoplifter.

Read the full story

Hamline University Will Require COVID Vaccine for 2021 School Year

Hayley Feland

Hamline University announced that they will be requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID before classes commence in the fall. The University’s President Fayneese Miller said, “We want, and need, to be together as a community. We value a sense of community at Hamline and all that entails, but to return to what we value and who we are, mandating a COVID-19 vaccine is necessary.” The announcement was made on Thursday with the expectation that students will be fully vaccinated before returning to campus in August.

Read the full story