Hamline University Releases Statement Concerning Academic Freedom Debate

(St. Paul, MN)  —  The president of Hamline University in St. Paul is firing back at critics of the school’s decision to deny another class to a professor.  Adjunct professor Dr. Erika López Prater was told she would not be offered another class after a student filed a complaint when she displayed an artistic depiction of the Prophet Muhammad during a lecture.  President Fayneese Miller released a new statement yesterday calling the debate over López Prater’s academic freedom “absurd” and saying “respect for the observant Muslim students should have superseded academic freedom.”  The President of the American Association of University Professors says the school’s actions are “unbelievable” after López Prater warned students about the imagery in her syllabus and just before the artwork was shown.