Saint Joseph’s University: Professor Suspended and Investigated for Tweets

On February 19, 2021, a Twitter user posted screenshots of tweets from the personal account of Saint Joseph’s University professor Gregory Manco. The tweets, about criticizing reparations for slavery and arguments about racism in the United States, led to calls for action by SJU, which responded on Twitter that it was “looking into” the situation and suspended Manco pending an investigation. FIRE wrote to SJU on February 23 explaining that Manco’s extramural expression is squarely within SJU’s promises that its faculty members enjoy freedom of expression, and calling on SJU to rescind Manco’s suspension and reaffirm its faculty’s rights to free expression. On May 12, an outside investigator concluded her investigation, finding that Manco did not violate any SJU policies.