A University of Pennsylvania professor who said CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione is the “icon we all need and deserve” has retracted her comments. Julia Alekseyeva is an assistant professor of English and media studies at the Ivy League school, which Mangione graduated from in May 2020 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering, as a computer science major. “I have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of P3nnsylvania,” Alekseyeva said on social media after Mangione was identified as a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. “These were completely insensitive and inappropriate,” Alekseyeva said of her Instagram and TikTok comments, “and I retract them wholly. I do not condone violence and I am genuinely regretful of any harm the posts have caused.” Jeffrey Kallberg, the deputy dean of Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, said the school “welcomes” Alekseyeva’s retraction and added that it “regret(s) any dismay or concern this may have caused.”
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