The University of Pennsylvania, where suspected gunman Luigi Mangione earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees, has refused to comment publicly on its alum's arrest in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
When asked multiple times for comment via email and phone, a UPenn spokesperson would only share that Mangione graduated on May 18, 2020 with bachelors and master’s degrees and minored in mathematics. He earned degrees in engineering and was part of the Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society for Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and of EqualProtect.org, told Fox News Digital that the school could be withholding comment because it is "afraid of the students" at the liberal institution, considering that "[its] campus has been a hotbed for anti-American, anti-Israeli, antisemitic outbursts and protests."
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"I'm not sure why, on something like this, they wouldn't be able to give some sort of statement – not necessarily convicting him in the media but expressing condolences to the family of the deceased or something like that," Jacobson said.
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Julia Alekseyeva, an assistant professor of English at the school, posted several TikTok videos seeming to praise Mangione.
Alekseyeva identifies as a "socialist and ardent antifascist" on her website and posted the videos under the name "The Soviette." In one, she holds her hand over her heart as the song "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from the musical "Les Miserables" plays in the background.
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"Have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania," she wrote.
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A UPenn spokesperson said that Alekseyeva had "retracted" her comments after realizing they were "insensitive and inappropriate."
"Much concern was raised by recent social media posts attributed to Assistant Professor Julia Alekseyeva," the spokesperson wrote. "Her comments regarding the shooting of Brian Thompson in New York City were antithetical to the values of both the School of Arts and Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania, and they were not condoned by the School or the University."
However, the school did not name Mangione or condemn Thompson's assassination.
"It seems odd that they can't offer generic condolences about his death without commenting on the guilt or innocence of their alum," Jacobson said.
In contrast, the headmaster of the small private academy where Mangione attended high school issued a statement the same day that the former valedictorian was arrested.
"We recently became aware that the person arrested in connection with the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is a Gilman alumnus, Luigi Mangione, Class of 2016," Henry P. A. Smyth, headmaster of the Gilman School in Baltimore, said. "We do not have any information other than what is being reported in the news… This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected."
The Ivy League university's silence on the national news involving its graduate comes a year after former Penn President Liz Magill declined to outright state that calls for the genocide of Jewish people constitute bullying or harassment under Penn's code of conduct during a congressional hearing.
Magill resigned four days after the hearing, on Dec. 11 of last year, ahead of a Board of Trustees meeting on whether she could continue to effectively fundraise and lead the university after the backlash against her handling of antisemitism at the school.
"I don't know if [refusing to comment is] the lesson they've learned, but I do know that schools and companies in general, their standard PR pattern is to not comment on things – it may be in completely good faith, what they're saying," Jacobson said. "Or it might be something else."
