This article is part of Fox News Digital’s investigative series, Campus Radicals. Explore the full series here.
In Wisconsin, a university professor recently found himself at the center of a viral social media moment after a Facebook post in response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The post highlighted what he described as an “isolating environment” for those with conservative beliefs on college campuses.
Trevor Tomesh, an assistant professor specializing in computer, information, and data science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, shared insights into the political climate within academia. While he feels there is room for political discourse among faculty at his institution, he acknowledges that this is not the norm across all American universities.
“At the University of Wisconsin—River Falls, there seems to be some space for open dialogue among faculty with differing political views,” Tomesh remarked in an interview with Fox News Digital. However, he pointed out a larger trend: “I know many professors are hesitant to express opinions that deviate from prevailing narratives.” Tomesh emphasized that his perspectives are his own and do not reflect the official stance of the university or the University of Wisconsin system.
In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University, Tomesh’s Facebook post criticized academia’s reaction to the tragic event. His message resonated widely, gaining traction not only on Facebook but also on other platforms like X, as it was shared extensively by conservative influencers.
Days after Kirk’s assassination on the campus of Utah Valley University, Tomesh took to Facebook to slam academia for its response to the murder. The post took off, not only on Facebook, but on platforms like X, where screenshots were shared far and wide by conservative influencers.
“The fact that Charlie was killed on a college campus for expressing his opinions and ideas — the one place in society that’s sole purpose is to express opinions and ideas — should be a watershed moment for all universities,” he wrote. “Every single member of every single university community — faculty, administrators, staff and students — should be lamenting this as it spells the death of the university.”
Instead, Tomesh wrote, Kirk’s death was met with deafening silence.
“To date, there has been no statement from my university or the University of Wisconsin system,” he said. “Not a single one of my students heard from any of their professors about this. How do I know? I asked them.”
River Falls, WI, USA – June 5, 2022: The University of Wisconsin River Falls (Cheri Alguire/iStock)
He also expressed disgust for professors and students who celebrated Kirk’s assassination, and contrasted the reaction to Kirk’s killing with the reaction to a popular Christian, conservative speaker named Sister Cindy Smock holding an event on campus. The school, he said, offered trauma counselors to students, and “assembled a task force to determine how to handle people like Cindy and the trauma she inflicts on students.”
Despite his many efforts to get the University of Wisconsin system to address Kirk’s death, it did not.
“Once I came out as a conservative and I made my views known on Facebook, and that my post went viral on Facebook, I had a lot of faculty and staff from all over the world, but from my university as well, message me and say basically, hey, ‘I wish that I had the bravery to speak up like you do,’” Tomesh told Fox News Digital. “And so it’s kind of an environment, it’s a cold environment. It’s an isolating environment when you’re conservative on especially a very liberal campus, which I’m not on a particularly liberal campus, but when you’re on a very liberal campus, it can be very isolating.”
Tomesh has experience in that realm from a past university position in Canada, where he said he was told by a university department head to believe whatever he wanted, but was also warned that there would be “consequences” for doing so.
Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
“So yeah, I use the word ‘coming out’ because it is something that when you do say, ‘I’m a conservative on a college campus,’ there is a certain expectation that you may wind up encountering friction,” he said. “Either friction from your colleagues or friction from administration, or even you know, backlash from students.”
He described an ugly scene on campus after Kirk’s assassination, when a chalk memorial to the slain conservative leader was “defaced with some very disturbing things, including one of the things that were written on the bullet casing that took Charlie’s life…”
“And it can be very hostile, a very hostile environment,” Tomesh said. “I’ve had lots of parents and lots of students email me saying that they’re afraid to either go to college or to send their children to college because they’re afraid that their students are not going to have a fair shake at it because of their orthodoxy.”
Tomesh denounced popularized rhetoric used in the political discourse that likens conservatives to “Nazis” and “fascists,” which he said is meant to dehumanize people.
He stressed two critical points to address.
People raise placards reading “This is our Turning Point” during 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 first is that Americans, and especially students on college campuses, need to unlearn the idea that speech itself is violence. Secondly, he said Americans need to separate their political ideas from their identities, pointing out that when a political ideology becomes someone’s entire identity, any attack on that ideology becomes an attack on the person.
“And that’s one huge problem, I think, especially with the ideological progressives, is that they have taken an assumed identity, assumed ideas into part of their core identity,” he said. “And that is a very big mistake, because then any attack on an idea inevitably is interpreted as an attack on your personal identity and on you as a person.”
Finally, Tomesh offered a stark warning about the direction of the United States if people cannot learn to tolerate dissenting opinions.
“And if we can’t do those two things, we’re done. We’re toast,” he said. “Western culture is over. And it’s—I’m serious about that. It’s going to be a civil war if we cannot learn those two things.”
The school explained its decision not to make a statement on Kirk’s death in an email to Fox News Digital on Monday.
“UW-River Falls is committed to freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, and respectful dialogue. We believe strongly in fostering a climate where all students and faculty feel supported and safe in expressing their perspective in a marketplace of ideas. These values are central to our mission and essential to the health of our democracy,” the school told Fox News Digital.
“Political violence has no place in our society, and the murder of Charlie Kirk was horrific. Following this tragedy, our student affairs team reached out to student organizations to offer support,” the school continued.
“We understand that questions have been raised about not issuing a formal public response. UW–River Falls adheres to the recently enacted Institutional Statements Policy of the Universities of Wisconsin that took effect last June. This policy is rooted in the principle of institutional neutrality wherein such statements should be limited to matters ‘that directly affect the operations and core mission of the university and should maintain viewpoint neutrality in any reference to any matter.’”
