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Emmitsburg, Md., Feb 11, 2016 \/ 03:42 pm (CNA<\/a>).- Amid uproar over comparing struggling students to bunnies that should be drowned or shot, Mount St. Mary\u2019s University president is now under fire for criticizing expressions of the Catholic faith at the school.<\/p>\n Already facing turmoil, the second-oldest Catholic university in the country is now seeing alumni and former faculty members publicly expressing their concerns over President Simon Newman\u2019s disparaging remarks about the college\u2019s Catholic identity \u2013 even reportedly calling some students \u201cCatholic jihadis.\u201d<\/p>\n Thane Naberhaus, a tenured professor who was recently fired from the Maryland university, told CNA that the president wanted to downplay the school\u2019s Catholic identity because, in his words, \u201cCatholic doesn\u2019t sell.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said publicly,\u201d Naberhaus told CNA, \u201c\u2018if you go in the marketplace, Catholic doesn\u2019t sell, liberal arts doesn\u2019t sell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Since late January, Newman had been the focus of controversy. The school\u2019s student newspaper, The Mountain Echo, ran a story<\/a><\/strong> about the president\u2019s alleged plan to pursue the dismissal of 20-25 freshman students based on results from a survey predicting their future success at the school. A number of faculty members reportedly objected to the plan.<\/p>\n In the article, a faculty member quotes Newman as saying, \u201cThis is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can\u2019t. You just have to drown the bunnies\u2026put a Glock to their heads.\u201d<\/p>\n Newman later acknowledged to the Washington Post<\/a><\/strong> that he used the harsh words, saying that the statement was intended only to acknowledge difficult conversations that sometimes need to occur. The board of directors issued a statement<\/a><\/strong> calling his words \u201cunfortunate,\u201d but standing by Newman as president.<\/p>\n Amid the outcry that followed, a faculty member who served as an adviser to the student newspaper was fired, along with Naberhaus, who was a tenured philosophy professor and the director of the university\u2019s honors program. He claims his letter of dismissal charged him with disloyalty to the university.<\/p>\n Newman responded to the backlash over the firings in a Feb. 10 statement to parents, where he said the university was not responding with the specific details of the firings in order to \u201ctake the high road.\u201d He added that \u201cit is critical that you know that we would never undertake actions like that unless the conduct in question warranted it.\u201d<\/p>\n Mount St. Mary\u2019s University was founded in 1808, alongside the establishment of Mount St. Mary\u2019s Seminary. The seminary shares the campus with the school and receives seminarians from various dioceses.<\/p>\n David McGinley, a 2011 graduate of Mount St. Mary\u2019s and a member of the Mount\u2019s College of Liberal Arts Advisory Board, had concerns following an Oct. 23, 2015 meeting with Newman and the university\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n In that meeting, Newman \u201cshowed a lack of appreciation for or desire to continue or further Catholic identity in any regards to what one would call traditional,\u201d McGinley told CNA.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he was saying is that Catholicism has lost its relevance,\u201d McGinley added. The concerns Newman raised, he continued, were that Mount St. Mary\u2019s was \u201cnot going to get customers to come\u201d if it marketed itself as a Catholic university.<\/p>\n A Facebook group of concerned alumni and students, \u201cMount Family Speaks Out,\u201d reported that Newman made similar remarks in an August student assembly.<\/p>\n According to a current administrative employee, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, President Newman has also criticized the cross, saying in passing that there were \u201ctoo many bleeding crucifixes\u201d in the employee\u2019s office.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a broken crucifix, and I have a crucifix that is done in limestone sculpture,\u201d the source told CNA, adding that the president had made the comment after seeing them.<\/p>\n Naberhaus said that he has heard similar reports from other faculty members \u2013 including some instances of the president disparaging the crucifix and using profanity.<\/p>\n Numerous alumni also pointed to the Mount St. Mary\u2019s landing page<\/a><\/strong> for prospective students as an example of the new attitude towards Catholic identity, noting that the page does not contain any references to the fact that it is a Catholic school.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is Simon Newman\u2019s vision for Mount Saint Mary\u2019s right there, encapsulated in that one webpage,\u201d Naberhaus said.<\/p>\n Naberhaus also said that he has heard Newman refer to students as \u201cCatholic jihadis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was kind of dividing up our student body and seeing a certain fraction of them,\u201d Naberhaus said. \u201cHe seemed to think that there was a sizeable fraction of our campus that fell into that camp, Catholic jihadis, and I never was sure exactly what he meant by that, but he was definitely using that phrase.\u201d<\/p>\n McGinley told CNA that in his meetings with Newman, he was disturbed by other \u201cderogatory comments towards Mount students,\u201d including a suggestion that some of the students \u2013 largely those who had been homeschooled \u2013 were \u201cjudgmental\u201d and could pose \u201ctrouble\u201d for the administration if they admonished fellow freshman for partying.<\/p>\n Catholic News Agency reached out to Mount St. Mary\u2019s for comment. The university said that it would comment at a future time.<\/p>\n Photo credit: Jon Bilous via www.shutterstock.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n