LEWISBURG – Following a discussion of refugee rights in the European Union, engineering student Will Talkoverya ’23 decided to, per his own admission, “play devil’s advocate for a second here, just to be fair.” To the great astonishment and celebration of all, the high-school graduate from suburban Arizona decided to bring his vast expertise to the 100-level American Politics class table, helpfully moderating class participation on behalf of the professor. Exclaiming the sources provided were “inadequate, and don’t go far enough”, the 18-year-old stunned onlookers by arguing the opposing side while simultaneously discounting the points made by other students as “disingenuous,” “in bad faith,” “too black and white” and “missing the point entirely.”

Starting every sentence with qualifying phrases such as “I’m not saying this is what I believe…,” “People have been saying…” and “To be fair…” onlookers say Mr. Talkoverya was nothing if not enthusiastic about his role in the conversation. “As class went on, it became increasingly clear that he came in with an agenda and was getting his information solely from fringe accounts on his Twitter feed,” said a source within the department. He is alleged to have interrupted the professor as she made the claim “all humans are entitled to basic necessities, including food,” and on numerous occasions told fellow students to “keep their emotions out of it” and really consider the “fiscal repercussions” of the matter.

His professor, Dr. Jade Ed, an accomplished political scientist whose graduate school dissertation explicitly covered the matters discussed during class, stated that she was “enthused by the vigorous discussion in class today and almost preferred it to the peaceful silence that Zoom had afforded her in the past semester.” Taking an Advil and Extra Strength Tylenol mid-sentence, she added that her office hours had just in fact ended, and Talkoverya has been making full use of them ever since U.S. President Joe Biden’s victory this past fall.

When approached for a comment, Talkoverya already had one prepared, stating that he felt dissent was oftentimes muzzled in a university setting and that he was just trying to “broaden people’s horizons” and “fight against the world’s ‘safe-space’ mentality” by being factually incorrect. At the time, the Bucknellian was unable to obtain information on what courses he planned to edify next semester.