Commonwealth Policy Center

After Showing a picture of the Prophet Muhammad to her students, art history professor Erika Lopez Prater was fired from Hamline University. Professor Prater notified students at the beginning of the semester in her syllabus that this was part of the course and that she encouraged them to contact her with any concerns. She even gave warning minutes before showing the image so they could leave the room if they wanted to. But it wasn’t enough. Students were still offended, and she was ultimately fired. So what does this incident says more about the sensitivity of students? Regardless of the answer, it says more about the reactionary posture of some universities, which should be places devoted to pursuit of the truth and developing well-rounded people above students’ sensitivity.