A tenured LSU mass communication professor said he will end his 18-year career at the university because of the election of Jeff Landry as governor. The Republican attorney general once tried to get LSU to punish the faculty member over a tweet.
Robert Mann announced in a tweet Sunday that the spring semester would be his last at the university. His news came the afternoon after Landry won the governorship with 52% of the vote, averting a runoff in a surprise primary win.
“My reasons are simple: The person who will be governor in January has already asked LSU to fire me,” Mann said in his post. “And I have no confidence the leadership of this university would protect the Manship School against a governor’s efforts to punish me and other faculty members.”
Mann said he’s retiring because of Landry’s hostile attitude toward him, which he felt could reflect poorly on the Manship School of Mass Communication, the senior college where he teaches. He doesn’t want Landry to punish LSU or the Manship School because of his presence, so it seemed right to remove himself from the situation, he said.
Ashley Arceneaux, chief of staff for the university president, pushed back on Mann’s assertions in a statement to the Reveille.
“LSU President William F. Tate IV and the entire LSU administration have consistently protected our faculty’s right to pursue discoveries and truth free of influence, and the freedom to voice their opinions,” she said. “Professor Mann’s choice to retire is a personal decision, and we extend our best wishes for his future endeavors.”
Landry spokesperson Kate Kelly told the Reveille the campaign had no response to Mann’s statements.
In December 2021, Landry publicly called on LSU to punish Mann after calling one of the attorney’s general employees a “flunkie.” Landry demanded LSU reprimand the professor.
Mann felt university leadership didn’t back him up like they’d done in previous years and administrations.
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A day or so after the incident, Mann said, the university’s upper administration “begrudgingly” gave him “the support they had to” in a statement to the press. The silence was loud, he said.
“In the past, when I’d had politicians come after me because of a column that I wrote or whatever,” Mann said, “I’d get somebody from the provost’s office saying, ‘Hey, we just want you to know, we got your back, we’re here to protect you.’ It’s pretty clear that the people currently running LSU just don’t have it in them to stand up to a governor who wants to punish a faculty member for speech they disagree with.”
Mann frequently criticizes the university’s administration, academic-athletic balance and especially the lack of funding toward replacing the LSU Library. He wasn’t always critical of these things, he said, and his words come from a place of love for LSU, where he and much of his family attended and graduated.
“I love this university,” Mann said. “I love it completely. It’s been the best job of my life.”
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The professor said he’s worried about the university’s future. He said he expects tenure to come under fire and for the state to continue to neglect support for higher education.
Mann said he thinks the Landry administration will be hostile to free expression, the mission of a modern university and the liberal arts. He predicts Louisiana’s education system will increasingly resemble what’s happening in Florida and Texas.
Manship School Dean Kim Bissell tried to convince Mann to stay, he said. He clarified that he independently chose to resign. He’d made up his mind about this decision long before election night.
Mann said he worries for younger members of LSU’s faculty who don’t have that luxury and might have to self-censor to further their career.
“I think it’s a shame that you lose such an educational opportunity because of outside political disagreements,” said Drew Prude, a political science senior who is currently taking a class Mann teaches. “The fact that this leads to him feeling not only that it is necessary to step down, but out of fear that more repercussions will come to the school, is a really bad kind of precedent to set.”
Prude said Mann’s strong opinions shouldn’t come as a surprise from someone who teaches classes in political communication and, consequently, politics. And Mann’s resume should be a reason for others to consider his opinions more highly, Prude said.
In his time at LSU, Mann has authored nine books. He’s led an activism class that promotes positive changes to the university — most recently, a crosswalk near the LSU Student Union.
Before coming to LSU, Mann served as the press secretary for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and U.S. Sens. John Breaux and Russell Long. Before his work in politics, he was a reporter.
He’s going to continue writing, he said, and hopes to continue teaching, perhaps even in another state.
“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me,” Mann said. “I’m not falling on my sword. I’m not going to starve. I’m going to miss my students. I’m going to miss the work that I do.”
