Students from Wheaton College have been holding sit-ins in the school campus, demanding the suspended associate professor Dr. Larycia Hawkins be reinstated.
Hawkins wore a hijab during the Christian Advent to show solidarity with Muslims, but was suspended over her remarks in a Facebook post, saying that Muslims and Christians "worship the same God."
The school published a statement on the college website explaining that she was given some time off to explore theological implications of her public statements.
"On December 15, 2015, Wheaton College placed Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Larycia Hawkins on paid administrative leave in order to give more time to explore theological implications of her recent public statements concerning Christianity and Islam. In the interim, College leadership has listened to the concerns of its students expressed through social media, a peaceful demonstration and one-on-one meetings with the administration," the statement reads.
The student body met the president of the school, to reinstate the professor and to sought an apology from the college for an "un-Christian" decision.
"The impression I'm getting is the administration is wanting to work toward reconciliation," Wyatt Harms, 22, told the Chicago Tribune. "And Dr. Hawkins is working toward reconciliation. At the end of the day, her faithfulness to Jesus will be evident."
Hawkins issued a statement on Thursday, saying that she also wants to reconcile with the school.
"I am committed to engaging in dialogue with appropriate colleagues at Wheaton toward the goal of reaching reconciliation so that I may continue to live out my vocation as a Christian scholar and teacher with my faculty colleagues and my remarkable students," she said.
Hawkins posted two photos of herself in a hijab on Facebook, along with detailed posts of why she sticks to wearing it all the time during the Advent and her views on religion.
"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."
About a week ago, she had posted on her Facebook page that she will wear a hijab in support of Muslims who are looked upon suspiciously since Paris and San Bernardino massacres.
The college did not take a stand on her for wearing a hijab, but for the reason she had cited in one of her posts saying that Christians and Muslims "are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God."
She was also asked to submit a theological statement by the school administrators.
"In her most recent statement, Dr. Hawkins seems committed to her personal theological stance, as stated in social media posts and subsequent media interviews; she has not yet reconciled her beliefs with the College's theological position," the statement reads. "[The review process] will include an assessment of her views related to our Statement of Faith through respectful and fair dialogue on these matters of strategic importance to our institutional identity and mission."
