The president of Hamline University has announced plans to step down, after taking sustained criticism for abandoning an instructor at the small private campus who showed images of the Prophet Muhammad in an art history class.

Fayneese Miller, the first black president of the 169-year-old religiously affiliated university, said she would retire in June 2024, after a ninth year of leading the 4,000-student institution in the Minnesota state capital of Saint Paul.

Dr Miller and Hamline were drawn into the international controversy back in October when an adjunct instructor, Erika López Prater, showed and discussed two centuries-old paintings of Muhammad during an art class that included Muslim students.

One of those students objected – citing the view among some conservative Muslims that images of Muhammad impermissibly promote idolatry. Dr Miller backed the student, and Dr López Prater was told that her teaching contract would not be renewed.

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The university’s full-time faculty then voted overwhelmingly to protest Dr Miller’s leadership, and Dr López Prater sued Hamline for defamation, religious discrimination, and infliction of emotional distress.

At a news briefing to announce her decision to retire, Dr Miller denied that Dr López Prater was dismissed in response to her display of the paintings. The president said she could not provide details due to the pending legal action, but stressed her commitment to academic freedom.

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Yet in the initial days of the controversy, Dr Miller had joined David Everett, the university’s associate vice-president of inclusive excellence, in sending a note to faculty and staff saying that “respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom”.

The paintings shown to the class were understood to be classic examples of medieval Islamic art, and Dr López Prater had warned about them in her syllabus, with an offer for students to step outside the room during their display.

The showdown attracted a wide mix of outside commentary, including both criticisms of Dr Miller’s treatment of Dr López Prater, and regrets that the case could end a groundbreaking presidency responsible for unprecedented growth in enrolment and diversity.

It even split the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, with the national organisation supporting Dr López Prater and its Minnesota state chapter backing Dr Miller.

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Dr Miller served previously as professor and dean of education and social services at the University of Vermont, and as associate professor of psychology and founding chairman of ethnic studies at Brown University.

In a written statement outlining her retirement plans, Dr Miller made no reference to the art class controversy, instead citing Hamline’s recent $105 million (£85 million) fundraising campaign and its push for diversity, with 44 per cent of its students now identifying as non-white, compared with 12 per cent in the statewide population.

“It has been an honor and privilege to lead Hamline University, an institution that values social justice, equity, inclusion, and civic engagement,” she said.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com