A tenured political science professor who Wheaton College seeks to fire said the private evangelical school has leveled a number of charges against her, including “her unqualified assertion of religious solidarity with Muslims and Jews.”
“I’m flummoxed and flabbergasted,” Larycia Hawkins said during a news conference at First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple on Wednesday.
“The charges against me are voluminous — about 38 to 40 pages’ worth,” she said. “But the most shocking and egregious ones are related to claims about my beliefs — that is, Wheaton College’s interpretation of what my theological beliefs must be based on my statements.”
Hawkins, 43, announced on Facebook last month that she would don a hijab as part of her Advent devotion to show support for Muslims who had been under scrutiny since mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
“I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book,” she posted on her Facebook page. “And as Pope Francis stated ... we worship the same God.”
Though the college did not take a position on her wearing the headscarf, some evangelical Christians said her statement should have spelled out what makes Christianity distinct from Islam. Not doing so put her in conflict with the statement of faith that all Wheaton faculty members must sign and live out, they said.
Within days, the college placed Hawkins on paid administrative leave through the spring semester, pending a review. Though she submitted a theological response to questions about her statement of solidarity, Provost Stanton Jones told the Tribune: “The statement in itself does not resolve all of the issues.”
Hawkins said the college had recommended she resign. She said the college also proposed a two-year revocation of her tenure, during which time she would continue conversations about the theological implications of her statements and her decision to wear the hijab.
While negotiations between lawyers for the college and Hawkins’ lawyers were still underway, Hawkins received word from Jones on Monday that the termination process already had begun. Among the reasons listed for termination, Hawkins said, were “her unqualified assertion of religious solidarity with Muslims and Jews” as well as statements that Muslims and Christians come from the same clay, and that Muslims and Christians are people of the book and worship the same God.
The nearly 40-page memo did not mention performance issues besides concerns about her theology and her unwillingness to continue conversations after submitting her theological response, which she said she had been told would be adequate, her attorney Robert Bloch said.
“The notice is not a termination; rather, it begins Wheaton College’s established process for employment actions pertaining to tenured faculty members,” Wheaton said in a statement.
Surrounded on Wednesday by about a dozen Wheaton faculty, alumni and students and dozens of other religious leaders, Hawkins said the college’s audacity to question the sincerity of her faith made her question whether its allegiance to uninformed donors trumped its commitment to providing a rigorous Christian liberal arts education for students.
“I teach at a university that exudes a zeal not only for knowledge and for experience of Jesus but also for experience of the word — freedom of thought, freedom of action within the confines of our commitment to live charitably and righteously as Christians,” she said. “While Wheaton College can signify that employees sign a statement of faith and adhere to it — and I do — they did not give me Jesus, and they can’t take him away from me.”
As part of the process, Hawkins will attend a hearing in the next 30 days with the college’s Faculty Personnel Committee, an elected body made up of nine tenured faculty members. The committee will hear testimony and evidence from both sides and make a recommendation to President Philip Ryken regarding Hawkins’ tenure. While an adviser may accompany Hawkins at the hearing, the college prohibits that person from having a law degree.
Ryken then will make a recommendation to the Wheaton College board of trustees.
Hawkins said faculty – tenured or not – should be aware that none of their communication — either on social media or in the classroom — is protected, which puts academic freedom and higher education in jeopardy.
“When calling on one member to, over and above every other member of the campus community, answer for a Facebook post that was actually committed to living out the love of Christ and the principles of the statement of faith, no one’s safe,” she said. “If they’re not safe on their Facebook page, they’re not safe in the classroom. And that’s the end of liberal arts. That’s the end of Christian liberal arts That’s the end of the academy.”
Some faculty members at Wheaton are as perplexed as Hawkins by the provost’s decision to try terminating the tenured professor. Psychology professor Bill Struthers said many of the faculty at Wheaton could opt to teach elsewhere. They don’t because they believe strongly in the school’s faith-based mission, he said. Still, they have “legitimate reasons to be asking questions about the process.”
“I’ve seen the administration act with great integrity on a number of occasions,” he said. “That’s why this seems so out of character.”
Hawkins, who appeared at a previous news conference wearing a hijab, appeared without the headscarf Wednesday. She said she took it off after Advent but donned it one more time on a flight from Oklahoma to Chicago on Dec. 30, again to express solidarity with Muslims who encounter profiling in airports.
“I actually felt protected in the hijab,” she said of the experience. “I felt another layer of reminder to pray and trust God.”