CMU’s internal investigation into the abrupt departure of psychology instructor Jennifer Miller concluded on Feb. 4. The investigation arose after Miller submitted a letter to the editor announcing her retirement from CMU last semester. She claimed that she was asked to “sanitize” her teaching after a student raised concerns directly with President John Marshall who subsequently presented the concerns to Miller’s department head and Academic Affairs.

The student concern stemmed from Miller’s SOCI-101 class, Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. The investigation report indicated that there was no wrong-doing on CMU’s part in handling the concern.

Marshall said he expected the report to indicate that everything was handled appropriately before it was released.

Title IX Coordinator Stephanie Rubinstein, English professor Kurt Haas and CMU Trustee Daniel Ramos conducted the investigation. Marshall forwarded the report to all CMU faculty the same day it was released.

Three findings arose from the investigation: the process followed regarding the student concern was appropriate, transparency regarding how administration handles complaints is important and there are differences in understanding the relationship between academic integrity and responsibility.

The sole recommendation offered by the investigation was to potentially add a process in the MavGuide for informal or non-grade related complaints relayed to the President’s Office.

Emails obtained through open records requests found that this was not the first time a student has complained about Miller. Email correspondence between Dr. Michelle Sunkel, Dr. Justin Gollob, Dr. Erika Jackson and Dr. Chad Middleton revealed that a student raised concerns about comments made by Miller during SOCI 101 back in 2023.

The complaints alleged that Miller made comments about faculty having “vanilla sex,” comments about the bisexual community perceived as disparaging and that she “used the N word” in class.

When asked about these complaints, Miller said she has never used the “N word” in class. The discourse regarding bisexuals and “vanilla sex” is part of queer pedagogy, not her personal values, and the comments were decontextualized from a broader educational setting.

The emails indicate that students made informal complaints in the past, but did not indicate whether they were brought to Miller’s attention. Miller said that she had never received any correspondence about any student complaints prior to last fall.

The comments that were brought to Miller’s attention last semester during a meeting between her, Middleton, Jackson and Dr. Eliot Jennings dealt with one specific topic: Christianity. A student raised concerns to Marshall that Miller spoke negatively of Christian churches in Grand Junction that were not accepting of LGBTQ+ community members and that Miller acknowledged that there were students in the class that likely voted for President Donald Trump in the last election. The student may have believed her comments were critical of anti-LGBTQ+ perspectives stemming from Christian values.

The student concerns from 2023 were not mentioned in that meeting.

Prior to the release of the report, Marshall said that he handles all informal complaints or concerns raised by students in his office the same way. He said he always redirects a student to take action themselves and then presents them with potential options but is not prescriptive about what the student should do.

“You could file an official complaint, do something through ‘Report It,’” Marshall said. “You could just go talk to your professor, in which case I’m happy to try to model what that might look like.”

However, there was no indication that the student took any further action beyond the initial conversation with Marshall.

According to the report, “the information from the student was delivered from President Marshall to the appropriate department heads in a neutral manner.”

In response to the report, Miller submitted a written statement to the Criterion. An excerpt read:

“From the initial student complaint, through the administrative meeting, to John Marshall’s statement that some portions of my retirement letter were “not true,” there is a clear pattern in which LGBTQ+ perspectives were minimized or rendered invisible. Marshall’s statement came before the formal investigation, and the official report does not address the specific concerns I raised about queer pedagogy. This sequence shows how preemptive denials and procedural handling can systematically silence marginalized voices and limit the ability to address the needs and experiences of LGBTQ+ students.”

Miller wrote in her statement that the elevation of specific concerns could contribute to “selective framing” on campus.

Miller also wrote in her statement that “other faculty share similar concerns about how classroom discussions are being narrowed and how administrative processes are framed.” She did not name any former CMU colleagues in the statement.

Questions about academic integrity and religious discrimination captured national attention after the University of Oklahoma fired a transgender instructor for allegedly discriminating against a student that referenced The Bible in one of her papers that had anti-trans undertones. The student, Samantha Fulnecky, received a zero on the assignment and filed a complaint with the school. The university removed the instructor due to “arbitrary” grading according to a statement the school released.

The situation surrounds a larger debate about academic freedom in the wake of President Donald Trump’s attempted restrictions on discourse regarding race, sexuality and gender on college campuses.