The Q&Q For 4/5/25

This week’s quote comes to us from none other than Jose Felipe Alvergue. Prof. Alvergue is the chair of the English Department at the UW Eau Claire. He’s on paid leave while the university sorts out what he did this week. He’s accused of flipping over a table staffed by College Young Republicans on behalf of Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel. Here’s his online profile from UW Eau Claire:

“I am a member of the Salvadoran diaspora, and my inquiries into national identity in the 21st-century – as one of human geography, migration, care, and survival – shapes the way I often approach teaching. 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.”

The State Journal story on this dust up goes on to say: “He said his interdisciplinary work engages decoloniality and embodiment through the lenses of aesthetics and aesthetic theory, performance study, poetry and poetics, political histories and political theory.”

1. Well, okay then, so now that you’ve read that, what does it mean?

A) Nobody knows but him.

B) Even he doesn’t know.

C) If you have to ask that question you’re a settler colonialist and a racist and we hate you!

D) He figured out a way to sound both intellectual and vaguely threatening in a way that made his committee afraid not to award him his doctorate and the UW Eau Claire afraid not to hire him, lest they be condemned as settler colonialists and racists.

2. Alvergue teaches English. The purpose of written communication is to:

A) Be clear, concise and honest.

B) Obscure your ideas in jargon so dense as to make you understandable to only a handful of people in your field, thus allowing you to ascend to a sort of mystical priesthood and to repel any attempt to criticize your statements. Catholic priests once used Latin for this purpose.

C) Obscure your ideas in word salads because you’re trying to cover up the fact that you have no idea what you’re trying to say.

D) Decolonize and embody one’s thoughts through lenses of aesthetics and aesthetic theory so as to unlock the empathy hidden behind words and also to transform the matter which makes up the world around us.

3. Let’s say a conservative professor at the UW (ok, but just imagine there was one) had kicked over a table staffed by Young Democrats or better yet, Young Socialists. The reaction of students at the UW would have been to:

A) Occupy Bascom Hall and, amid tears, claim that they felt unsafe on their campus and demand that the Chancellor or, at the very least, the Dean of Students come tuck them in at night.

B) Demand the immediate firing of the professor.

C) Demand that the Regents disinvest from Israel and also South Africa and also, just for old times sake, that the Vietnam War end now!

D) Demand that free vegan meals be served at all campus cafeterias.

4. Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that three university professors have messed up recently. Which one should not only be fired from his administrative job but also lose his tenure?

A) The prof who kicked over a table because he didn’t like the politics of the kids sitting behind it.

B) The prof who, as head of a department, spent lavishly on raises, meals, conferences and even massages and hair cuts for himself and his staff.

C) The prof who, on his own time, produced videos and books celebrating the wonders of sex between committed, consenting adults, and also cooking.

5. Given the pressure universities are feeling from both the Trump administration and Republicans who control the UW’s budget in the Legislature, UW President Jay Rothman’s likely reaction to Alvergue’s alleged action was to:

A) Have another martini.

B) Check once again with his old law firm to see if his position had really been filled and, if so, is that person fitting in and working out?

C) Offer Robin Vos the opportunity to go kick over the table of a Pro Palestinian student group just to even things up and put this whole thing behind us.

D) Eliminate the Eau Claire English Department.

6. The ACLU, once the defender of free speech no matter the politics, responded to this incident by:

A) Condemning Alvergue.

B) Offering to provide free legal help to the Young Republicans in pursuing whatever action might be appropriate.

C) Sending out a fundraising email asking for contributions to defend Alvergue.

D) Saying nothing at all.

7. When a table full of political literature is pushed over, your average UW student activist would see it as:

A) A despicable act of violence directed at suppressing free speech.

B) An act of protected free speech in itself.

C) It all depends on whose literature was on the table.

Answers

1: All answers are possible, but we think D is the most likely.

2: A

3: All answers are acceptable.

4: If you’re Rothman and the Regents, it’s C. That would be former UW La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, who was both fired from his chancellor’s role and stripped of his tenure. The answer in B refers to UW Madison Prof. LaVar Charleston, who was relieved of his post overseeing campus DEI programs, but allowed to return to his teaching position in the School of Education.

5: All answers are acceptable.

6: D, but don’t put C past them. It’s early.

7: C