Former SJU prof. Manco settles lawsuit with some defendants, but not all

Greg Manco, the former St. Joseph’s University math professor who alleges he was chased out of his job because of a tweet about racial reparations, has settled his lawsuit with four alumna defendants, but the charges still stand against the university and key defendants who Manco says orchestrated a campaign to have him unseated.

The move is one of the more consequential developments for a lawsuit now entering its 50th month over alleged “cancel culture” behavior by the university in the pandemic era in that it’s one of the few changes that seems to indicate an end to the contest is still visible. 

In early 2021, as the nation was still embroiled in the racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Manco tweeted his stance on reparations from an account that didn’t directly bear his name.

“Suppose your great-great-grandfather murdered someone,” he tweeted on Feb. 17. “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 bulls*** out of your head for good,” he concluded. The tweet linked to an Associated Press story reporting that the Biden administration was “giving its support to studying reparations for Black Americans for slavery and discrimination.”

Not long after, the post became a flashpoint on social media and people began calling for Manco’s resignation or firing. A Change.org petition said, “Blatant and pubic [sic] disrespect for people experiencing poverty, racism, sexism, and so much more is unacceptable. This man needs to be removed from his position as an educator.”

SJU pulled Manco from the classroom for the remainder of the spring semester and he was also relieved of his coaching duties with the university baseball team. Later, his contract as a visiting professor was not renewed. Although SJU hired him as an adjunct professor, the change caused him to lose some pay and benefits. 

When he sued in 2022, the university fired him, claiming he violated a student’s privacy. His complaint revealed that a student — the one Manco believes was the driver to get him fired — had failed his class a few years before.

Manco alleges the university and the surviving defendants engaged in defamation, retaliation, and false light, a charge similar to defamation. He also alleges tortious interference with a contract, and charges the university only with breach of contract.

As the lawsuit has unfolded, his court filings have suggested that a university investigation exonerated him despite the university’s statements that it did not have enough information to reach a decision.

Terms of the settlement were undisclosed, but Manco hinted that he was more pleased with some outcomes opposed to others.

“I have reached a satisfactory settlement with Kiernan Loue, and have also reached a satisfactory settlement with Corinne McGrath. Regarding Lynly Carman and Erin Fahey, I can say that each matter has been resolved.”

Manco’s complaint accused the four of making knowingly false statements that fed into the coordinated social media and institutional campaign against him. 

“Remember, none of these people [of the four who settled] were current students, and not even all of them had Dr. Manco in class. So, a lot of the what we believe were falsehoods [from the four] were based on hearsay, and that’s why we went after them, because they amplified things in social media that were just not true.” said Joe Toddy, one of Manco’s attorneys. 

“Anyway, we’re happy we resolved the claims against these four individuals. And we’re looking forward to prosecuting the claims” against the remaining defendants, Toddy said. 

A lawyer on the other side of the courtroom warned that people shouldn’t read too much into the partial settlement.

“As this matter is ongoing, we can’t comment in detail. However, our clients remain confident in their position and believe [Manco’s] claims lack merit,” said Candice Kearney, an attorney with the Tucker Law Group representing the remaining defendants. “The partial settlement involving other parties does not impact our clients’ view of the case.”

An SJU spokesperson offered the university’s standard response since the matter moved to federal court.

“The matter is before the court, and out of respect for the judicial process, Saint Joseph’s University will respond in that forum,” said SJU public relations associate director Kevin Gfeller.

The attorney representing the four persons who settled did not return a request for comment.

Based on the pace of the suit thus far and on the issues that likely remain before the court, a trial would seem most likely for 2027, if it isn’t concluded earlier for some other reason like a settlement.

In particular, through his court filings Manco has alleged that the alumna who received a failing grade in his math course had orchestrated a campaign to provoke his firing. 

In July 2025, Broad + Liberty published voice messages between the alumna and a student journalist at the campus newspaper, The Hawk. The messages were obtained by Manco and his legal team as part of discovery and were shared with this outlet.

“So basically I found this out, I think it was the end of January, February, and I sent it to — his tweets — to Dr. Bucci on Twitter,” the alumna said in the first message. “And I was like, ‘My girl, I don’t think he should really be allowed to tweet like this and teach.’ And she was like, ‘Well, I don’t think so, really, either.’”

“Well thank you for reporting him and thank you to Dr. Bucci for reporting him. But I am gonna see what I can do and I don’t know, maybe convince other people to report him as well,” the journalist said in a response message. “I just don’t want him to work here anymore, so — I’m on it. Going to get this man f***ing fired. Alright.”

The two years immediately following George Floyd’s murder saw a significant uptick in efforts to sanction or silence professors, according to the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE.

“Cancel culture is particularly pernicious when it targets people charged with discovering and disseminating knowledge,” said Komi Frey, FIRE’s director of faculty outreach and a co-author of the 2023 report, “Scholars Under Fire.”

According to that report, efforts to sanction or silence professors jumped from 87 in 2019, to 151 in 2020, and 213 in 2021, with the spike attributed largely to the Floyd murder and the resulting surge in scholars targeted for racial speech. 

“Vocal, dogmatic minorities on the left and the right are trying to restrict the range of acceptable ideas in institutions of higher education, and this should alarm us all,” Frey said. “You do not need to agree with a scholar’s teaching, research, or extramural speech to recognize that censorship is not the answer.”

Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at tshepherd@broadandliberty.com, or use his encrypted email at shepherdreports@protonmail.com. @shepherdreports