Wheaton College Professor Will 'Part Ways' With University

A Wheaton College professor who got in trouble with the evangelical university for saying Muslims and Christians worship the same God has decided to “part ways” with the college.

The tenured political science professor, who has been on administrative leave since December, and the college
”found a mutual place of resolution and reconciliation” on Saturday, according to a joint statement made my Hawkins and the college. The confidential agreement reached between Larycia Hawkins and the college means she will end her employment at Wheaton College.

“Wheaton College sincerely appreciates Dr. Hawkins’ contributions to this institution over the last nine years,” Wheaton College President Dr. Philip Graham Ryken said. “We are grateful for her passionate teaching, scholarship, community service and mentorship of our students.”

The decision comes five days before a faculty hearing was scheduled to decide how to handle Hawkins’ employment moving forward, the Washington Post reports. In an e-mail to Wheaton College faculty Saturday night, Wheaton Provost Stanton Jones had handed over the responsibility of deciding whether to take Hawkins off administrative leave to college President Philip Ryken, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Just a couple hours later, professors received an email from Ryken stating Hawkins would not be returning to teach.

The controversy began in December when Hawkins, who is a Christian, said she decided to wear a hijab over advent to show her ”solidarity for her Muslim neighbor.”

“I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God,” Hawkins wrote in a Dec. 10 Facebook post. “As part of my Advent Worship, I will wear the hijab to work at Wheaton College, to play in Chi-town, in the airport and on the airplane to my home state that initiated one of the first anti-Sharia laws (read: unconstitutional and Islamophobic), and at church.”

On Saturday night, Hawkins said she still had “great respect” for her former employer.

“I appreciate and have great respect for the Christian liberal arts and the ways that Wheaton College exudes that in its mission, programs, and in the caliber of its employees and students,” Hawkins said in the joint statement.

A joint press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Chicago Temple First United Methodist Church, 77 W. Washington St., in Chicago.