Colorado Mesa U. Queer Studies Prof Resigns After Told to Remain ‘Neutral’ in Class

Colorado Mesa U. Queer Studies Prof Resigns After Told to Remain ‘Neutral’ in Class

The moment this professor started speculating about how her students voted, she was out of bounds.

The College Fix reports:

Colorado queer studies professor resigns after told to remain ‘neutral’ in class

A professor specializing in queer studies at Colorado Mesa University recently resigned early rather than teach classes this spring semester after a dispute with administrators over academic censorship concerns.

The controversy stems from comments the professor made at the start of her fall semester Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies sociology class.

She had criticized Christian churches that do not accept LGBTQ people, and noted some students in her class might have voted for Donald Trump, according to various reports on the matter.

The comments prompted a student in Miller’s class to complain to the university president during his office hours, and led to two separate investigations in recent months — one looking into the professor’s comments, and a second reviewing how administrators handled that probe.

In February, the internal review found that administrators did nothing wrong during their investigation, according to a memo to faculty from CMU President John Marshall reviewed by The College Fix.

The controversy centered on Jennifer Miller, an adjunct professor of social and behavioral sciences at the school who had taught at the school for nearly a decade.

“A university that cannot tolerate critical pedagogy is not committed to learning; it is committed to self-preservation,” Miller stated in a Jan. 8 letter to the editor of the campus newspaper announcing her early retirement.

“When institutions feel threatened, they call for caution or moderation; in reality, these are tools used to protect power,” Miller wrote.

Miller declined an interview request from The College Fix.

According to Miller’s letter, she was told by administrators to be “’neutral’—to mute my voice—because of two sentences from my first-day lecture that were taken out of context.”

“In one, I welcomed all students and acknowledged that some local churches are queer allies while others require critical interrogation, informed by students’ experiences of religious trauma. In the other, I noted it was ‘likely that one of you voted for Trump,’ immediately followed by affirming that you have the right to be here and that this classroom is a safe space in which to engage with difficult issues,” Miller wrote in her letter.

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