'Creeping illness' of liberal bias at university, alumni argue

A group of alumni at St. Joseph’s University is protesting the school in response to the university’s handling of professor Gregory Manco termination.

Gregory Manco, an assistant math professor and baseball coach, was removed from the classroom after students found a pair of anonymous tweets on a private twitter account.

The tweets contained Manco’s personal feelings about the left’s reparation plans and radical bias training. Manco, who had been with the university for 17 years, was fired even after an investigation by the university proved no bias was shown.

So if these numbers are true about peoples’ perceptions of racism, what does it say about all of the race/bias “training” that has been going on for some years now?

Could it be that such training actually divides us and *worsens* race relations? https://t.co/FjLri3ymFQ

— South Jersey Giants (@SouthJerzGiants) February 18, 2021

On Friday, six concerned alumni protested outside a 50th reunion luncheon for the class of 1971, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The alumni held signs reading “H**l no! No more dough for Saint Joe,” and “Re-hire Manco and fire the wokesters [sic].”

The alumni gave a letter to university leaders at the luncheon outlining their concerns. The group plans to communicate with other alumni to cut off donations to the university, which the Philadelphia Inquirer reports could be the in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Anna Dorneman, a junior communications and graphic design student at SJU, told Campus Reform that the alumni’s decisions were justified because the University is becoming more and more liberal.

[RELATED: Ole Miss asks alumni to include school in their wills amid deadly pandemic]

“I think it’s the only way to make people more aware,” said Dorneman. “In the past, I feel I have received lower grades than I deserved because I took a conservative approach.”

The alumni originally expressed their concern about the University’s bias after an incident earlier this year.

“It looks like retribution, and it looks like they are sending a message to the rest of the staff and students that if you go against the orthodoxy, you’ll be punished,” said James A. Henwood, one of six alumni in protest. “It’s bad optics at the very least.”

The alumni’s biggest concern, the newspaper reports, is “the creeping illness” of liberal ideas that are taking over the campus.

Mike Dugan, the president of College Republicans at SJU, also expressed his concern in an interview with Campus Reform.

[RELATED: UMich stands by Trump fundraising megadonor despite alumni demands]

“When professor Manco was fired, we knew that free speech does not exist on campus,” said Dugan. “We knew that any opinion that the university disagreed with, could be weaponized against us.”

Suppose your great-great-grandfather murdered someone. The victim’s great-great-grandson knocks on your door, shows you the newspaper clipping from 1905, and demands compensation from you. Your response?

Now get this racist reparation bullshit out of your head for good. https://t.co/eYonlgmmSk

— South Jersey Giants (@SouthJerzGiants) February 18, 2021

Many students and alumni feel Manco was wrongfully fired and should be reinstated. Likewise, Dugan questioned the effect this decision would have on the university as a whole. 

“The university has completely prioritized their leftist agenda over the well-being of the students,” Dugan said. “Our university is already hurting for money. They have had a decline in admissions and have cut professor salaries already in some cases. I think that losing hundreds of thousands more will just continue to put the university on the decline.”

“My parents used to also give donations to the university but have stopped over the course of this past year for the same reasons,” he added.

Campus Reform reached out to SJU for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.