ST PAUL, Minn. — After eight years at the helm of Hamline University in St. Paul, President Fayneese Miller announced Monday that she will step down from the role when she retires next June.
“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,” Miller said in a statement on April 3.
Miller was selected by the Hamline University Board of Trustees to serve as the institution’s 20th president in July 2015. Since then, she oversaw first-year enrollment growth, increased the university’s endowment, and helped establish Hamline’s reputation as a welcoming place for students from diverse backgrounds, according to a statement from the school.
Miller will officially retire from Hamline on June 30, 2024.
The past five months of Miller’s tenure saw Hamline thrust into the national spotlight after an adjunct professor was fired for showing images of the Prophet Muhammad in an Oct. 2022 art history class.
In January, faculty leaders called on Miller to resign in the wake of the controversy. They said they lost faith in Miller because of how she handled a Muslim student’s objection to seeing the artwork in class because it violated her religious beliefs.
The fired professor, Erika López Prater, is currently suing the school for religious discrimination, reprisal, and defamation in federal court.
Hamline University has asked the court to toss the lawsuit and U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez will listen to arguments in the school’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit on May 17.
Following the debate around López Prater’s firing, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota chapter commended Hamline’s decision and characterized the event as Islamaphobic. However, the national arm of CAIR public disagreed.
In a statement Monday, CAIR-Minnesota said the chapter “condemns the forced retirement of Hamline University President Dr. Miller.”
