This text is a part of Fox Information Digital’s investigative sequence, Campus Radicals. Discover the complete sequence right here.
In Wisconsin, a college professor not too long ago discovered himself on the middle of a viral social media second after a Fb put up in response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The put up highlighted what he described as an “isolating setting” for these with conservative beliefs on faculty campuses.
Trevor Tomesh, an assistant professor specializing in laptop, info, and knowledge science on the College of Wisconsin-River Falls, shared insights into the political local weather inside academia. Whereas he feels there may be room for political discourse amongst school at his establishment, he acknowledges that this isn’t the norm throughout all American universities.
“On the College of Wisconsin—River Falls, there appears to be some area for open dialogue amongst school with differing political beliefs,” Tomesh remarked in an interview with Fox Information Digital. Nonetheless, he identified a bigger development: “I do know many professors are hesitant to precise opinions that deviate from prevailing narratives.” Tomesh emphasised that his views are his personal and don’t mirror the official stance of the college or the College of Wisconsin system.
Within the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley College, Tomesh’s Fb put up criticized academia’s response to the tragic occasion. His message resonated broadly, gaining traction not solely on Fb but additionally on different platforms like X, because it was shared extensively by conservative influencers.
Days after Kirk’s assassination on the campus of Utah Valley College, Tomesh took to Fb to slam academia for its response to the homicide. The put up took off, not solely on Fb, however on platforms like X, the place screenshots have been shared far and extensive by conservative influencers.
“The truth that Charlie was killed on a university campus for expressing his opinions and concepts — the one place in society that’s sole objective is to precise opinions and concepts — must be a watershed second for all universities,” he wrote. “Each single member of each single college group — school, directors, workers and college students — must be lamenting this because it spells the loss of life of the college.”
As an alternative, Tomesh wrote, Kirk’s loss of life was met with deafening silence.
“Up to now, there was no assertion from my college or the College of Wisconsin system,” he mentioned. “Not a single certainly one of my college students heard from any of their professors about this. How do I do know? I requested them.”
River Falls, WI, USA – June 5, 2022: The College of Wisconsin River Falls (Cheri Alguire/iStock)
He additionally expressed disgust for professors and college students who celebrated Kirk’s assassination, and contrasted the response to Kirk’s killing with the response to a preferred Christian, conservative speaker named Sister Cindy Smock holding an occasion on campus. The varsity, he mentioned, provided trauma counselors to college students, and “assembled a activity drive to find out how you can deal with individuals like Cindy and the trauma she inflicts on college students.”
Regardless of his many efforts to get the College of Wisconsin system to handle Kirk’s loss of life, it didn’t.
“As soon as I got here out as a conservative and I made my views identified on Fb, and that my put up went viral on Fb, I had plenty of school and workers from everywhere in the world, however from my college as properly, message me and say mainly, hey, ‘I want that I had the bravery to talk up such as you do,’” Tomesh advised Fox Information Digital. “And so it’s form of an setting, it’s a chilly setting. It’s an isolating setting while you’re conservative on particularly a really liberal campus, which I’m not on a very liberal campus, however while you’re on a really liberal campus, it may be very isolating.”
Tomesh has expertise in that realm from a previous college place in Canada, the place he mentioned he was advised by a college division head to consider no matter he wished, however was additionally warned that there can be “penalties” for doing so.
Charlie Kirk throws hats to the gang after arriving at Utah Valley College on September 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Photos)
“So yeah, I exploit the phrase ‘popping out’ as a result of it’s one thing that while you do say, ‘I’m a conservative on a university campus,’ there’s a sure expectation that you could be wind up encountering friction,” he mentioned. “Both friction out of your colleagues or friction from administration, and even you already know, backlash from college students.”
He described an unpleasant scene on campus after Kirk’s assassination, when a chalk memorial to the slain conservative chief was “defaced with some very disturbing issues, together with one of many issues that have been written on the bullet casing that took Charlie’s life…”
“And it may be very hostile, a really hostile setting,” Tomesh mentioned. “I’ve had a lot of mother and father and plenty of college students e mail me saying that they’re afraid to both go to varsity or to ship their kids to varsity as a result of they’re afraid that their college students usually are not going to have a good shake at it due to their orthodoxy.”
Tomesh denounced popularized rhetoric used within the political discourse that likens conservatives to “Nazis” and “fascists,” which he mentioned is supposed to dehumanize individuals.
He pressured two vital factors to handle.
Folks increase placards studying “That is our Turning Level” throughout a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona, U.S., September 21, 2025. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
The primary is that Individuals, and particularly college students on faculty campuses, have to unlearn the concept speech itself is violence. Secondly, he mentioned Individuals have to separate their political concepts from their identities, declaring that when a political ideology turns into somebody’s complete id, any assault on that ideology turns into an assault on the individual.
“And that’s one big downside, I believe, particularly with the ideological progressives, is that they’ve taken an assumed id, assumed concepts into a part of their core id,” he mentioned. “And that could be a very large mistake, as a result of then any assault on an concept inevitably is interpreted as an assault in your private id and on you as an individual.”
Lastly, Tomesh provided a stark warning concerning the route of the US if individuals can not study to tolerate dissenting opinions.
“And if we are able to’t do these two issues, we’re completed. We’re toast,” he mentioned. “Western tradition is over. And it’s—I’m severe about that. It’s going to be a civil warfare if we can not study these two issues.”
The varsity defined its resolution to not make a press release on Kirk’s loss of life in an e mail to Fox Information Digital on Monday.
“UW-River Falls is dedicated to freedom of expression, viewpoint variety, and respectful dialogue. We consider strongly in fostering a local weather the place all college students and school really feel supported and secure in expressing their perspective in a market of concepts. These values are central to our mission and important to the well being of our democracy,” the college advised Fox Information Digital.
“Political violence has no place in our society, and the homicide of Charlie Kirk was horrific. Following this tragedy, our scholar affairs group reached out to scholar organizations to supply help,” the college continued.
“We perceive that questions have been raised about not issuing a proper public response. UW–River Falls adheres to the not too long ago enacted Institutional Statements Coverage of the Universities of Wisconsin that took impact final June. This coverage is rooted within the precept of institutional neutrality whereby such statements must be restricted to issues ‘that immediately have an effect on the operations and core mission of the college and will keep viewpoint neutrality in any reference to any matter.’”
