BIG RAPIDS, MI – A physical science professor at Ferris State University has been placed on administrative leave after reportedly calling the coronavirus pandemic a “leftist stunt” and allegedly posting racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs on Twitter.
Ferris State faculty member Thomas Brennan, who is under investigation by the university for his alleged remarks, told MLive on Monday, Nov. 23, in an emailed statement: “I feel I’m being unfairly portrayed as a racist and anti-Semite.”
Brennan also said he thinks the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has been overexaggerated by the media and government, although he acknowledged the coronavirus is not a hoax and that many people have died from it. Read the professor’s entire statement here.
Almost 8,500 people in Michigan have died with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. There have been over 300,000 positive cases around the state.
FSU President David Eisler announced Monday that Brennan had been placed on administrative leave following his remarks, and said the university “strongly rejects” and condemns the professor’s offensive statements, according to a Nov. 23 message to the university.
“Our University was founded on the concept that education is for all of the people all of the time, that all people are welcome here,” Eisler said in the message.
“We strongly reject these statements, condemn them and will not tolerate them. We have worked diligently to become a more diverse university, and these statements demonstrate vividly how one person can set back the work of many.”
Ferris State spokesperson John Smith declined to say whether Brennan was placed on administrative leave in response to the professor’s allegedly offensive tweets or his comments about COVID-19, or both. Smith said the university would not provide any further comment about the incident following Monday’s message from the president.
The university was reportedly notified last week of Brennan’s “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs” on Twitter, and the professor was placed on leave Thursday, Nov. 19.
“Individually and collectively we were shocked and outraged by these tweets,” Eisler said. “They are extremely offensive and run counter to the values of our University and our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Brennan’s Twitter account is now hidden from public view, and was reportedly made private after inquiries last week from the university’s student-run newspaper, The Torch.
According to screenshots of Brennan’s previous tweets published by The Torch, several tweets from the professor included racial and homophobic slurs. Some tweets had anti-Semitic language, including one that said, “Covid19 is another jewish revolution,” The Torch reported.
Brennan said in a prepared statement that he is not racist, but justified his use of the n-word in one of his tweets as an attempt to “neutralize its power.” He said he used the word as a synonym for “human being” or “person” in the context of the tweet.
Brennan deleted the tweet within a few hours of posting it in July 2019, he said.
“I believe the ‘n-word’ is a mind-control spell designed to make us hate each other,” Brennan said in the prepared statement. “I reject the premise that there are certain magic words that should never be used in any context or by certain people.”
In response to claims that some of his tweets referencing a “Jewish mafia” were anti-Semitic, Brennan said he does not believe middle-class Jewish people are involved in an international conspiracy, “only that a small number of their elites are.”
Brennan also addressed in his statement claims about him denying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic.
In an August online meeting within FSU’s College of Arts, Sciences and Education, Brennan reportedly disrupted the meeting with comments denying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the message from the president.
Brennan said in the meeting that “COVID-19 death rates in the United States were exaggerated, and the pandemic and rioting were leftist stunts,” according to the president’s office. Brennan was disciplined for his comments by Associate Dean Trinidy Williams, Eisler said.
“These comments both surprised and offended those attending the meeting,” Eisler wrote.
Brennan clarified in his prepared statement that he does not believe the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax, and acknowledged that people have died from the coronavirus. But he said he believes the pandemic has been turned into a “stunt designed to enslave humanity” and take away Americans’ rights.
“Its severity is being exaggerated by revolutionary leftists in the media and government who ‘never let a good crisis go to waste,’” he wrote.
Disciplinary investigation involving a tenured faculty member is outlined in the university’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Ferris Faculty Association, according to the president’s message.
Brennan’s faculty profile on the Ferris State website appears to have been removed from the physical sciences department.
More on MLive:
Fall 2020 enrollment drops 3.5% at Michigan’s state universities; see numbers by school
Coronavirus on campus: How Michigan colleges handled it and what the winter semester holds