Texas Wesleyan students had a variety of reactions to the Mike Jeffcoat controversy.

Jeffcoat, Wesleyan’s head baseball coach since 2002, was released from the university Thursday after a controversial email he sent to a prospective player went viral and received national attention.

Several hours after the announcement, opinion was divided over whether or not Jeffcoat should have lost his job. But the general consensus was that Wesleyan was right to act on the situation.

The students seem to agree that what was written in the letter to the Colorado student was wrong.

“I thought it was a little obnoxious,” said Dannerick Scott, freshmen criminal justice major. “I also thought there was a lot of discrimination in it. I think he shouldn’t have sent it. In my opinion I think it was a little childish and naïve.”

Fellow football player freshmen psychology major Blacko Sonnier agreed.

“I thought that the Tweet was childish and inappropriate,” Sonnier said. “It could have been handled in a better way. I feel like you really can’t deny another player a chance to perform for you just because of some circumstances that you can’t control. I think it was unfair.”

Junior criminal justice major Jennifer Romero also agreed that what Jeffcoat had written and his logic for his reasoning was wrong.

“I thought it was wrong because he’s like basing a whole state on just like one person,” Romero said. “I think that was wrong.”

Junior education major Lucy Saldivar felt bad for the student Jeffcoat addressed the email to.

“As a student having that kind of feedback, it’s kind of a push down,” Saldivar said. “I feel for that student.”

Saldivar believes that letter was no place for his politics.

“I’m not saying he deserved to be fired,” Saldivar said, “but whatever issues he had should have found another outlet that was not on that student.”

Romero was surprised at how fast the university acted.

“I felt like it was a little too far to fire him,” Romero said. “I think they should have like suspended him and then investigated him more. They said it was under investigation, but it just happened so I don’t know how they could just fire him just like that.”

Sonnier also agrees Jeffcoat shouldn’t have been fired and said that the university should have looked at other options.

“I don’t think he should have been fired, but he should have been suspended a little bit, let him think about it and come out with an apology,” Sonnier said. “I don’t think he should have been fired especially since they’re a winning team.”

Scott also agreed that firing was harsh and was concerned about Jeffcoat’s family.

“I think he should have gotten penalized, maybe suspended without pay or something like that, but he too has to feed his family,” Scott sad. “I think it was a lot of jumping to the guns in this conclusion.”

At the same time, Scott was glad that the university took action.

“I think they were right to act, but it was definitely a little too extreme,” Scott said. “Everybody needs a job to feed their family, so they should have looked at more options instead of just pushing the gun.”

Video by Alpha Diallo