Deputy dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Kallberg condemned comments from a Penn faculty member that appeared to celebrate the actions of 2020 Engineering graduate Luigi Mangione, who is charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in a statement on Wednesday.
English and Cinema and Media Studies professor Julia Alekseyeva posted on multiple social media platforms on Tuesday night in apparent support of Mangione’s alleged involvement in the high-profile murder case. The statement marks Penn’s first public statement on the matter since Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9.
“I have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of P3nnsylvania,” Alekseyeva wrote in a post on TikTok. She also shared a post from 34th Street Magazine on her Instagram story about Mangione, referring to him as the “icon we all need and deserve.”
A request for comment was left with Alekseyeva.
“Much concern was raised by recent social media posts attributed to Assistant Professor Julia Alekseyeva,” Kallberg wrote in the statement. “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.”
He added that “[u]pon reflection,” Alekseyeva has “concurred that the comments were insensitive and inappropriate” and has retracted them.
“We welcome this correction and regret any dismay or concern this may have caused,” Kallberg concluded.
The original posts have since been taken down.
“Late last night I posted a TikTok, as well as several stories on my Instagram,” Alekseyeva wrote in a follow-up post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, later on Tuesday night. “These were completely insensitive and inappropriate, and I retract them wholly. I do not condone violence and I am genuinely regretful of any harm the posts have caused.”
Prior to Penn’s statement, Faculty Senate chair and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Eric Feldman spoke to The Philadelphia Inquirer about Mangione’s background at the University, saying “[t]his story is not about the Gilman School in Baltimore, where Luigi Mangione was valedictorian, and it is not about the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with two degrees.”
"It is about the terrible murder of Brian Thompson, and the unimaginable loss and grief being experienced by his loved ones,” Feldman said. “It is also about how a young man, seemingly with a great deal of promise, fell through the cracks of society, became increasingly unstable emotionally, and having lost his way embraced fringe ideas that led him to kill.”
He added that “[t]he root cause of this tragedy” is not in Mangione’s education, “but in a society that too often fails those who are in desperate need of mental health care.”
Feldman declined to provide further comment to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Mangione was charged in Manhattan with second-degree murder for the killing of Brian Thompson on Monday evening, as well as three gun charges and forgery. The charges came after Mangione was charged with five crimes in Pennsylvania not related to the CEO’s murder, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Altoona, Pa. police department.
At a press conference held Monday afternoon in New York, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that officers “recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset.”
Mangione was awarded a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer and information science from Penn in May 2020. He also founded UPGRADE, Penn’s game development club, was a teaching assistant for an undergraduate class, and was inducted into Penn’s Eta Kappa Nu honor society for excellence in electrical and computer engineering.
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