The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire College Republicans were tabling yesterday for Brad Schimel on election day. The group had been instructed where they were allowed to set up a table on campus and did so. But at some point a man came by and challenged them, telling them they had no right to be there.
Tatiana Bobrowicz said she was personally present when the suspect walked up to the table on campus and confronted the students…
The suspect told them they were too close to the polling place, Bobrowicz says. She says they weren’t. Then he said, “The time for this is over,” and “That’s when he flipped the table,” she told Wisconsin Right Now in an interview.
The flipping of the table wasn’t caught on video, but one of the students did capture the person responsible walking away along with the contents of the table on the ground.
BREAKING: A professor just FLIPPED OVER A TABLE set up by the College Republicans at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire.
The group reports the professor is José Felipe Alvergue, the Chair of the English Department.
They were tabling for today’s Supreme Court election. pic.twitter.com/ebc9TWseeE
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) April 1, 2025
Here’s a before and after image along with a statement from Tatiana Bobrowicz about what happened.
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire has confirmed the attacker as José Felipe Alvergue, An associate professor and English Department Chairman. pic.twitter.com/oMskDp2vTN
— Seth Freakin Rich (@SethRichPanda) April 1, 2025
The college Republicans called the police and filed a report. They also spoke to Jake Wrasse, the school’s community relations liaison, who told them the suspect’s name. It turns out the suspect was a professor of English and the chair of the English department. And here’s the professor responsible:
The group reported that José Felipe Alvergue flipped the table.
From their X account: “Jose Felipe Alvergue has now been confirmed by the university to be the attacker from this morning.” pic.twitter.com/ZWalBxlQ6L
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) April 1, 2025
After the disruption, the college Republicans went back to tabling. Meanwhile, Alvergue has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is underway.
“I am deeply concerned that our students’ peaceful effort to share information on campus on election day was disrupted,” [EW Provost Michael] Carney said in a statement. “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 added that “civil dialogue is a critical part of the university experience, and peaceful engagement is fundamental to learning itself.”
“We are working with the Universities of Wisconsin and the Office of General Counsel, which is conducting a comprehensive investigation of this matter. The faculty member involved has been placed on administrative leave pending that investigation,” Carney said.
Alvergue is a writer and poet who has published several books. He has a “statement of practice” on his website which suggests he’s very much the woke ideologue you’d imagine him to be.
I was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, and migrated with my family to the United States at the commencement of El Salvador’s civil war. Growing up on the Mexico/US Border and being a part of the Central American diaspora have informed the nature of my work, which borrows from postlyric, docupoetic, and hybrid compositional practices. As have my experiences of living through the structural inequality, hate, and racial supremacy of Southern California’s political landscape during the late 1990s, including the various examples of xenophobic legislation, police abuse, and the militarization of the border…
My project is of knowing, and in knowing––or returning sentience to the decolonialized––engaging with the ongoing care work of the self in the era of its sublimation into the expansive, polluted power of supremacist monopoly capitalism.
A student who flipped over a table in a classroom would almost certainly be suspended. A professor should be held to a higher standard than a student, even more so when that professor teaches writing and should know about the importance of free speech. I’m not saying he should be fired over this outburst but at a minimum he owes the school and the college Republicans a sincere apology for making an ass of himself.
Read the full article here
