Hamline University under fire for art professor's dismissal

[Jilly_in_VA]

A Minnesota university’s decision to dismiss a professor for including depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a world art course has put the small, private school at the center of a debate over how to include controversial material in college courses while respecting students’ personal relationship to the material.

Months after the images were shown in an online class, the chair of Hamline University’s Board of Trustees said Friday that the trustees were reviewing the university’s policies and its responses to both student complaints and faculty concerns about academic freedom. Also Friday, a national civil rights organization for Muslims rebuked accusations that the professor’s behavior was Islamophobic.

The conflict began in October when adjunct professor Erika López Prater included a 14th-century painting depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on Islamic art, prompting a Muslim student in the class to complain to the university, according to media reports and advocacy groups that have backed either the professor or student.

López Prater was aware that for many Muslims, visual depictions of the Prophet Muhammad violate their faith. A course syllabus she has shown in media interviews noted that students would view images of religious figures, including the Prophet Muhammad. The syllabus also included an offer to work with students uncomfortable with viewing those images.

https://apnews.com/article/education-colleges-and-universities-minnesota-middle-east-religion-e39841dd59ea2647a6019b4ba669bfe5

It's not like she didn't make all kinds of accommodations for those uncomfortable with the images, FFS,

[intheflow]

1. Yes, the key here is all the advance warning students were given.

What was academically dishonest was to fire the professor without actually investigating her teaching techniques or syllabus, or speaking to any other Muslim than the one student who complained. Even more, it was academically lazy. Hamline needs to do much, much better.

[progressoid]

3. Yeah, it was in the syllabus fer cryin' out loud.

Student could have just ignored it.

Big failure by Hamline IMHO.

[SheltieLover]

2. People need to quit trying to push their religious bs on others.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Here's What I Don't Get

The complainant appears to be a controversy miner.
But even beyond that, she's a Muslim woman IN COLLEGE taking a religious tenet so strictly in support of a religion that often pushes WOMEN down & in the strictest areas deny education to them.
So a college student supports traditions that don't support women being educated.
Makes me doubt her sincerity & how much offense was really taken. Plus, it makes the college look like suckers.