UW-Eau Claire associate professor José Felipe Alvergue has been removed from his position as chair of the English Department and charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly flipping the College Republicans’ table outside of Davies Student Center on Election Day, Tuesday, April 1. Alvergue did not reply to The Spectator for comment.
In the weeks following the alleged incident, students and other locals have spoken out, referring to the nationally-covered incident as an example of political unrest in the United States today.
Dean of College of Arts and Sciences Aleks Sternfeld-Dunn recently addressed English students at a forum, where he discussed the incident to the best of his ability. Sternfeld-Dunn said because there is still an ongoing case related to the incident, he couldn’t disclose many details at this time.
“I can’t share anything that would put anyone at risk of unfair process,” Sternfield-Dunn said. “It’s not fair to students — it’s not fair to José.”
The alleged incident occurred in the midst of a nationally heated Wisconsin State Supreme Court election between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel. On Tuesday, students and Eau Claire residents of wards 20 and 24 voted at the polling stations set up on the third floor of Davies.
Both the College Republicans and the College Democrats were tabling on the campus mall. Each club displayed signs, banners and other information in support of their respective candidates.
According to first-year economics and finance student Jaxson Moe, who was tabling with the College Republicans and recorded a now-viral video of Alvergue walking away, Alvergue approached the table around 8:27 a.m. to ask what the organization was doing so close to the polls, potentially referencing a state legislative statute.
Moe said he and club president Tatiana Bobrowicz were the only ones at the table.
“She started to answer, but before she could respond, he said, ‘The time for this is over’ and flipped over the table,” Moe said.
According to Moe, nobody was physically injured by this action. He said, from what he witnessed, he did not feel the action was warranted.
Moe said after the fact, Bobrowicz and himself were “scared.” Following the incident, the two called the Eau Claire Police Department. Officers took a report, but quickly turned the case over to campus police.
Moe said after the table was flipped, several members from the College Democrats, including Wisconsin College Democrats chair Matthew Lehner, approached the group and shook their hands, saying that kind of occurrence shouldn’t happen regardless of political affiliation.
First-year nursing student Amelia Leiber, an independent voter who posted her opinions about the incident on a class Snapchat story, said she learned what happened after seeing the video recorded by Moe online.
“I remember thinking, ‘Huh?’ Holy s—,” Leiber said. “At first, I honestly didn’t believe it. Political propaganda nowadays is so extreme — especially after our presidential election, s— was getting so real on both sides.”
Leiber said she supports the notion that people are allowed to feel how they feel, but that this kind of reaction was too extreme.
“I understand that there are so many feelings going on, but I think what our professor did was way too far,” Leiber said. “There were plenty of times during the presidential election when I just wanted to go up to that table and yell at them, but that isn’t socially appropriate.”
According to Sternfield-Dunn, investigators from the Universities of Wisconsin have begun looking into the event by questioning witnesses and anyone who may have been involved in the incident.
Sternfield-Dunn did not confirm where they are in the process for this particular incident. He said to follow protocol in any situation of this nature, after questioning investigators will share the information with the person who received the complaint. Typically, complaints are issued to higher-ups like the dean, the provost or the chancellor.
The receiver of the complaint has three options: they can dismiss, they can send the complaint and information higher to the next person, or administer a range of disciplinary actions from a note in their file to termination.
If a disciplinary action is taken, the faculty member can file a grievance and a faculty grievance committee will look at the case. The chancellor still has final say on the decision making-process after the committee determines their thoughts on the action.
If the disciplinary action is termination, the issue must be brought to the Board of Regents after being looked over by the chancellor.
Lynn Buske, an organizer for local advocacy nonprofit JONAH Justice, said she feels Alvergue’s alleged reaction was a nonviolent, human expression of emotion and that he should not be removed from his position. She said that, from her point of view, the media painted the story in the wrong light.
“People are now outraged about someone’s outrage, which is exactly the same behavior they’ve been complaining about,” Buske said. “It isn’t productive. The focus should not be on the action — the focus should be on the why of the problem and what caused the reaction.”
Both Moe and Leiber said they are concerned about the widespread conflict between political parties. They said on both sides, people seem to fixate on the extremes of the opposition. Leiber said she wants citizens to communicate before acting out toward one another.
“If we can just stop with the bulls— and understand that people have different political views,” Leiber said. “I won’t be friends with you if you voted for Trump in the 2024 election. But not all Republicans voted for Trump and that is something everybody needs to get through their heads.”
Moe said he condemns the physical violence plaguing the country on both sides. He referenced the storming of the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and left-wing supporters keying Teslas to protest Elon Musk.
Moe said he feels Alvergue should have been fired from the university. He said while he disagrees with the alleged action, he believes in the importance of maintaining and expressing one’s core values.
“Regardless of political affiliation, make sure that you don’t let people change your core beliefs,” Moe said. “You could be a liberal at heart or a conservative at heart, but your personal beliefs are what make you you and I don’t think anyone should change that, no matter what.”
Leiber said based purely on Tuesday’s occurrence, she too thinks Alvergue should be stripped of his position.
“I’ve never met the man. He could be a totally chill dude who maybe had a horrible morning and something inside him just clicked. Humans do that. We all do that, we all make mistakes,” Leiber said. “But, I do not know the whole story. I do not know what was going on in his head at the time, or what was going on in his heart.”
Buske said she supports Alvergue during this time.
“We’re all grappling with so many emotions right now,” Buske said. “Many of us don’t have an outlet to work through these emotions, and this very human outburst is a symptom of that issue.”
No information has been shared at this point regarding the investigation or what action will follow the complaint.
Wojahn can be reached at [email protected].
