Hamline University ( ) is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities. The university is named after Bishop Leonidas Lent Hamline of the United Methodist Church. As of 2017, Hamline had 2,117 undergraduate students and 1,668 graduate students. In 2022, the university attracted widespread criticism after firing an adjunct professor for showing paintings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a class on the history of Islamic art. History Red Wing location (1854–1869) Hamline was named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church whose interest in the frontier led him to donate $25,000 toward the building of an institution of higher learning in what was then the territory of Minnesota. Today, a statue of Bishop Hamline sculpted by the late professor of art Michael Price stands on campus. Founded as a coeducational institution, Hamline was among the first coeducational universities in the United States. Hamline's first home was in Red Wing, Minnesota. The school's charter stipulated Hamline be located "at some point on the Mississippi between St. Paul and Lake Pepin." The city of Red Wing pledged about $10,000 to enable construction of a building and the beginning of an endowment, and donated a tract of land on a hillside overlooking the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1854, Hamline University is the oldest university in Minnesota, and the first coeducational university in the state, graduating its first collegiate class in 1859. The first classes at Hamline were held in rooms housed on the second floor of the village general store while the construction of the classroom building was in progress. Students moved into the Red Wing building in January 1856. The original building contained a chapel, recitation rooms, a school room, a library, laboratory, reading rooms, and dormitory quarters. Seventy-three students enrolled at Hamline in the opening year. The catalog lists them separately as "Ladies and Gentlemen," but most of them were children or adolescents. All were enrolled in either the primary or the preparatory department. There was no collegiate division – the frontier had not yet produced students ready for college. Tuition ranged from $4.00 to $6.66 per term. With the start of the American Civil War, enrollment in the college division dropped from 60 to 16