The University of Pennsylvania is being accused of violating its own free speech policies after the school opened an investigation into a professor who praised the United Healthcare CEO’s alleged murderer.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, is a group whose mission is to defend freedom of speech and thought. On Dec. 16, it sent a letter to university President J. Larry Jameson urging the school to drop its investigation of the professor.
“Upon learning Thompson’s alleged killer Luigi Mangione is an alumnus of Penn,” according to the foundation’s letter, Professor Julia Alekseyeva posted a now-deleted video of herself on TikTok with on-screen captions reading she had “never been prouder to be a professor at the University of [Pennsylvania].”
Alekseyeva also called the CEO’s alleged murderer “the icon we all need and deserve,” according to a screenshot posted by Libs of TikTok.
Alekseyeva later “retract[ed] wholly” her comments on X, saying she does “not condone violence” and is “genuinely regretful of any harm” her posts caused.
When reached twice for comment, neither Jameson, Penn media relations or Alekseyeva responded.
Mangione has been charged with the murder of Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 after video footage allegedly caught him gunning down the CEO on a Manhattan sidewalk earlier this month. A five-day manhunt ended roughly 275 miles away at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa.
Writings discovered by police detailed Mangione’s disdain for corporations and the “parasitic” commercial health insurance industry. UnitedHealthcare is the medical insurer in the country, covering roughly 29 million Americans.
While some Ivy League professors initially celebrated Thompson’s murder, others were not as impressed, such as Yale Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld.
Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, told The Center Square that “any celebration of the arbitrary murder of an innocent person should be condemned by community institutions, friends, family and the employer of such a cruel [and] reckless speaker.”
Sonnenfeld said that Alekseyeva’s comments “might be protected speech,” but that “there is no guaranteed freedom of speech by a private employer.”
The foundation’s letter to Penn outlines where the school’s free expression policies protect Alekseyeva’s comments and urges the university to end its investigation and “honor its commitments to free expression” by not terminating Alekseyeva.
FIRE Campus Rights Advocacy program officer and writer of the Penn letter Aaron Corpora told The Center Square that “Professor Alekseyeva’s sociopolitical commentary is the very type of expression that Penn’s policies and the First Amendment exist to protect.”
Corpora referenced the school’s Guidelines on Open Expression, such as where the policies state the school “affirms” and “supports” freedom of thought and speech, as well as its commitment to uphold and practice “the freedom to hear, express, and debate various views.”
Thus, Corpora believes that an investigation into Alekseyeva “violates Penn’s policies.”
“Penn’s policies do not exist solely to protect favored expression, and if they are worth the paper they’re written on, these expressive policies must protect unfavored expression, as well,” Corpora said.
When asked if Penn’s investigation violates free speech, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation Hans von Spakovsky told The Center Square that he believes “this is one instance where FIRE is wrong.”
FIRE “is failing to distinguish between a difference of opinion, or holding an unpopular view, and someone who supports murder and assassination,” von Spakovsky told The Center Square.
Von Spakovsky believes that “difference of opinion on issues and individuals” should be protected, but praising “the murder of another individual” due to differing opinions or work is another matter.
Von Spakovsky also told The Center Square that “the First Amendment applies to the government, not a university.”
“It is totally inappropriate to have someone in a position of authority, someone who is teaching young minds, who supports and idolizes an assassin or such a violation of the rules of civilized society that govern our country,” von Spakovsky said. “No one like that should be a teacher and the university has every right to investigate her and, hopefully, fire her.”
FIRE’s letter reads that “while some may find Alekseyeva’s posts offensive, they are unquestionably protected by Penn’s written commitment to free speech,” and that statements that Alekseyeva’s posts are “harmful” or “dangerous” do not disqualify them from “Penn’s protection of expressive freedom.”
While acknowledging in its letter that “Penn is not explicitly bound by the First Amendment,” FIRE says that “First Amendment jurisprudence informs Penn’s commitment to expressive rights and faculty’s reasonable expectation of what those rights encompass.”
FIRE requested a response from Penn to its letter by Dec. 20.
