UW-Eau Claire professor placed on leave after flipping College Republicans table
Tatiana Bobrowicz, who chairs the chapter, said she had just finished setting up the table outside the student center about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, with candy, doughnuts and literature promoting Schimel and Brittany Kinser, the conservative-backed candidate for state superintendent.
Bobrowicz said a man came up to the table and asked what the group was doing so close to the polling location, which is inside the student center.
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Wisconsin law does not allow electioneering — defined as any activity intended to influence voting at an election — within 100 feet of an entrance of a building where voting is taking place.
Bobrowicz said she explained the chapter always tabled in that location and UW-Eau Claire had approved it.
The man told her "the time for this is over," flipped the table over and walked away. She immediately called police and filed a report. She said UW-Eau Claire later notified her the man was José Felipe Alvergue, who chairs the English department.
Alvergue did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment.
"This takes it to a whole new level," Bobrowicz said. "Not just a professor, but a chair of a department. He's supposed to set an example for students and here he is setting an example of violence."
Bobrowicz credited UW-Eau Claire for its response, saying police immediately responded and campus officials took her report seriously. The university did not immediately respond to a Journal Sentinel message seeking comment.
The entire incident lasted only about 10 seconds, Bobrowicz said, but it reinforced to her the hostility conservatives face on campus. She said the student body's reactions in the aftermath were disheartening, saying she heard comments like the chapter "had it coming" and deserved it because of "how hateful" their views were.
"It's scary to see how much hatred there is toward us," she said.
In a statement reported by local TV stations, UW-Eau Claire Interim Provost Michael Carney said the campus is working with the University of Wisconsin System and the Office of General Counsel, which is "conducting a comprehensive investigation."
"I am deeply concerned that our students' peaceful effort to share information on campus on election day was disrupted," Carney said.
Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming retweeted a video on X showing the aftermath of the flipped table. Schimming said Alvergue "violently overturned a College Republican table on campus today."
UW-Eau Claire sits along the western border of Wisconsin and has about 8,800 undergraduates. A ward in Eau Claire that serves a number of university dorms voted about 29% for President Donald Trump in November, an increase for Republican candidates in recent elections.
More: Trump gained ground in battle for Wisconsin college voters, even flipping one UW campus ward
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Eau Claire professor placed on leave after flipping GOP table
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