Marquette University is facing a popular backlash for threatening to fire a conservative professor if he does not apologize for exercising his First Amendment rights.

In less than two weeks, nearly 4,000 people have signed a petition denouncing Marquette’s “totalitarian” tactics and calling on the university to reinstate Dr. John McAdams, who was suspended last month over a post he wrote on his personal blog criticizing another instructor for refusing to allow students to question the propriety of gay marriage during a class discussion.

"We want to show that they can't pull this kind of move and expect people to not notice."

[RELATED: Marquette conservative prof suspended, required to admit ‘guilt’ to keep job]

In addition to suspending McAdams without pay until January 2017 (he had been on paid suspension since December 2014 while the school investigated him), Marquette is also requiring him to admit “guilt” in the matter or else face an indefinite extension of the suspension—equivalent to firing him.

“Marquette said McAdams’ suspension will continue without pay for the rest of the year, and that he will be fired unless he essentially begs for forgiveness, says he was ‘reckless and incompatible,’ and expresses ‘deep regret for the harm suffered’ by the instructor,” the petition observes, declaring, “This is totalitarian, and it’s a recurring leftist tactic of administrators, whose goal is to silence conservative students and faculty.”

The petition was introduced on April 4 by PragerU, an organization that promotes conservative principles through short online videos, and had garnered 3,880 signatures at press time. Once it surpasses 5,000, PragerU Communications Director Jared Bradley told Campus Reform that the organization plans to bring their demands directly to university President Michael Lovell.

“We want to show that they can't pull this kind of move and expect people to not notice,” Bradley said.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @FrickePete