(Alvergue’s action wasn’t quite like this, but at least in this case, no political opinions were being subverted and no criminal citations were offered. It’s also Buffalo, so, y’know… things are just different there…)
THE LEAD: A UW-Eau Claire faculty member has received a yearlong unpaid suspension after he upended a table the school’s Young Republicans group during the April elections.
(Group adviser Tatiana) Bobrowicz said she explained to the man that the chapter always tabled in that location and UW-Eau Claire had approved it. The man, later identified by police as Alvergue, told her “the time for this is over,” flipped the table over and walked away.
Accounts vary on how aggressive Alvergue was when he flipped the table. Bobrowicz called the incident “violent.” A student witness unaffiliated with the College Republicans described it as “very non-violent,” the report said. Another witness said Alvergue seemed “a little upset.”
Alvergue initially denied flipping the table to a police officer, according to the police report. He later portrayed the table-flipping as accidental instead of intentional, saying his pinky finger caught on the table when he tried clearing off the buttons and stickers, causing it to collapse. He recalled the people at the table snickering at him, which he believed was because he wore a T-shirt and pin promoting transgender rights.
In discussing the situation for the first time publicly, Alvergue told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he is now working a minimum-wage job to compensate for his loss of income and that he regrets his actions on April 1.
Alvergue, who joined UW-Eau Claire in 2013, said he was feeling overwhelmed by the election and Elon Musk’s attempts to sway Wisconsin voters with $1 million checks. As the child of immigrants, he said he was also distressed by the Trump administration’s mass deportations.
“I still care about these things, “he said. “But that doesn’t mean I get to go out and knock tables over.”
DOCTOR OF PAPER HOT TAKE: This situation is one of those important reminders about how free speech in this country actually works, especially in comparing “free speech” to “consequence-free speech.” In this case, Alvergue expressed himself without governmental intrusion, but he still had to deal with criminal (he was cited for disorderly conduct and paid a fine for it) and employment consequences.
I have to say I find the consequences to be relatively metered by today’s standards, where an inappropriate tweet, unearthed 10 years after someone made it, can lead to a lifetime on the “cancelled” list in polite society. Other people have lost their jobs for good in cases like this, while some people have been allowed to skate. This isn’t to say this is a good outcome for the situation, or that future ramifications aren’t going to happen, but it is kind of a “OK… so that’s done now…” situation.
Still, I think the bigger thing that worries me is that set of future ramifications that are oblique, to say the least, for both Alvergue and the educational system on the whole. UW-La Crosse is freaking out about letting Joe Gow go back into the classroom because of his “adult-film hobby,” that literally impacts none of his students. What are students signing up for Alvergue’s next set of classes going to feel in terms of potential outbursts or a general sense that he may have a bias against them due to their political affiliations?
In a previous article, Bobrowicz stated that this kind of thing was representative of the climate on campus when it comes to how conservatives are treated. I would argue that varies from campus to campus, as places like one of my alma maters always felt like it was left of left while one of my work stops felt like being centrist practically placed one at Haight Ashbury. That said, the perception of such things often trumps the reality for people who have to live with a sense of bias, so when incidents like these come to bear, it only makes it harder on the rest of us.
