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Let us consider a scene from the increasingly unhinged campuses of America. On Wednesday, the chair of the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, one Professor José Felipe Alvergue, [the bizarre dude in the photo above] was placed on leave after allegedly flipping over a table manned by the College Republicans.
This was no mere tantrum, but a physical assault on the very notion of free discourse.
Tatiana Bobrowicz, a junior who leads this beleaguered chapter, recounted the incident to Wisconsin Public Radio with admirable clarity. Her group had set up their table on Tuesday morning, duly sanctioned by the university, in the outdoor campus mall to champion conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel. Hardly a revolutionary act.
Bobrowicz, undeterred, issued a statement on the UW-Eau Claire College Republicans’ Instagram: “The university has since confirmed that this attacker was the chair of the university’s English Department. Once again, this type of violent attack will not be tolerated.”
The suspect, identified by campus police as Alvergue, now faces scrutiny. Bobrowicz told WPR, “We have students who are afraid to go to classes today because they are associated with our club, or they believe what we believe.
The university’s Interim Provost, Michael Carney, issued a statement that at least nods toward principle: “I am deeply concerned that our students’ peaceful effort to share information on campus on election day was disrupted. UW-Eau Claire strongly supports every person’s right to free speech and free expression, and the university remains committed to ensuring that campus is a place where a wide variety of opinions and beliefs can be shared and celebrated.” He went on, “Civil dialogue is a critical part of the university experience, and peaceful engagement is fundamental to learning itself.” Fine words—though one suspects they will be tested by the inevitable clamor for leniency toward the professor.
Carney noted that Alvergue has been placed on administrative leave while the university, in concert with the Office of General Counsel, investigates. A prudent step, though the damage is already done.
Who is this table-flipping pedagogue?
Tatiana Bobrowicz, a junior who leads this beleaguered chapter, recounted the incident to Wisconsin Public Radio with admirable clarity. Her group had set up their table on Tuesday morning, duly sanctioned by the university, in the outdoor campus mall to champion conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel. Hardly a revolutionary act.
Yet, as she explained, “a man came up to our table and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I hadn’t even finished when he said, ‘The time for this is over,’ and just flipped the table.”
The time for this is over? One wonders what clock this leftist professor is watching—perhaps one set to the authoritarian hour.
Bobrowicz, undeterred, issued a statement on the UW-Eau Claire College Republicans’ Instagram: “The university has since confirmed that this attacker was the chair of the university’s English Department. Once again, this type of violent attack will not be tolerated.”
The aftermath, captured on video, spread across social media like wildfire, a testament to the absurdity of the moment.
The suspect, identified by campus police as Alvergue, now faces scrutiny. Bobrowicz told WPR, “We have students who are afraid to go to classes today because they are associated with our club, or they believe what we believe.
This individual does not speak for all professors, but there is a type of example that he set and there are students celebrating his actions.” Here we see the ripple effect of such cowardice: fear among the young, and a perverse glee among those who mistake thuggery for virtue.
The university’s Interim Provost, Michael Carney, issued a statement that at least nods toward principle: “I am deeply concerned that our students’ peaceful effort to share information on campus on election day was disrupted. UW-Eau Claire strongly supports every person’s right to free speech and free expression, and the university remains committed to ensuring that campus is a place where a wide variety of opinions and beliefs can be shared and celebrated.” He went on, “Civil dialogue is a critical part of the university experience, and peaceful engagement is fundamental to learning itself.” Fine words—though one suspects they will be tested by the inevitable clamor for leniency toward the professor.
Carney noted that Alvergue has been placed on administrative leave while the university, in concert with the Office of General Counsel, investigates. A prudent step, though the damage is already done.
Who is this table-flipping pedagogue?
According to his personal website and staff bio, Alvergue was born in El Salvador, immigrating to the US at the outset of its civil war, growing up along the US-Mexico border. A journey that might have taught resilience, yet seems to have birthed a different lesson. His personal statement intones, “Now as a parent, as a partner, as a teacher, a voter, a neighbor, it has become ever more imperative for me to find new ways of clarifying where the self begins and ends, and tending to the clarity of one’s love for an other.”
Noble, perhaps, until one considers that flipping tables hardly clarifies anything beyond petulance. His staff bio adds, “I believe that we can’t unlock the empathy hidden behind words if we don’t understand what is at stake in the risk writers and artists take when they decide to transform the matter which makes up the world around them into the story words communicate.”
A pity he didn’t extend such empathy to the students whose table he upended.
This incident is not merely a campus squabble. It is a symptom of a deeper rot: the collapse of reason under the weight of ideology, and the willingness of those entrusted with education to silence rather than engage. The students deserve better. So do we all.
This incident is not merely a campus squabble. It is a symptom of a deeper rot: the collapse of reason under the weight of ideology, and the willingness of those entrusted with education to silence rather than engage. The students deserve better. So do we all.
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