{"id":2436,"date":"2025-10-22T16:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:41:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:41:58","slug":"utah-valley-university-student-group-protests-creation-of-charlie-kirk-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/utah-valley-university-student-group-protests-creation-of-charlie-kirk-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah Valley University student group protests creation of Charlie Kirk memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OREM, Utah (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc4.com\/news\/charlie-kirk-shooting\/student-group-protests-charlie-kirk-memorial-uvu\/\">KTVX<\/a>) \u2014 The Student Democratic Society organized a protest on the Utah Valley University (UVU) campus against the creation of a memorial for Charlie Kirk, who was murdered at a Utah Valley speaking event on September 10.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, following the conservative influencer&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc4.com\/news\/charlie-kirk-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">murder<\/a> on its campus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc4.com\/news\/charlie-kirk-shooting\/uvu-committee-memorial-charlie-kirk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">UVU announced that it was planning to create a memorial in Kirk&#8217;s honor<\/a>. The university created a committee to develop the memorial, with members from Utah Valley, the Utah Board of Higher Education, students, political leaders, and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc4.com\/news\/charlie-kirk-shooting\/uvu-committee-memorial-charlie-kirk\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tPREVIOUS COVERAGE: Utah Valley University to create Charlie Kirk memorial, conduct independent review of assassination\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Levi Colby, a UVU student at the protest, told Nexstar&#8217;s KTVX that Kirk&#8217;s murder was a tragedy and that they&#8217;re hoping for unity on campus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We do not stand for violence at UVU. I think I can speak for the whole student body when I say we do not want violence on our campus. As a part of that, we want the opposite of that, we want unity, we want kindness, we want friendship, we want to show each other that we&#8217;re here for one another,&#8221; Colby said.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Colby feels like Kirk is not the kind of figure that should be permanently remembered on the UVU campus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The worry with this memorial that they&#8217;re planning on putting up, or creating a planning committee, at least, to potentially put up, is that it&#8217;s celebrating Charlie Kirk and not celebrating unity. We want to celebrate unity. We want to celebrate students coming together in a time of tragedy. We don&#8217;t want to celebrate, frankly, a very racist, bigoted man,&#8221; Colby said.<\/p>\n<p>Colby said that the students protesting do not want a memorial in Kirk&#8217;s likeness, but they are open to a memorial that celebrates the way the student body came together following Kirk&#8217;s murder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A memorial for Charlie Kirk, I think, would be a memorial for hatred,&#8221; Colby concluded. <\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc4.com\/news\/charlie-kirk-shooting\/tyler-robinson-motion-to-strike\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tRELATED: Tyler Robinson\u2019s attorneys accuse prosecution of conflating role in criminal proceedings\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>When the plan for the memorial was announced, there were competing petitions about the memorial \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/establish-a-memorial-for-charlie-kirk-at-uvu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one in support<\/a>, which now has over 21,000 signatures, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/prevent-charlie-kirk-memorial-at-uvu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one opposing<\/a>, which currently has over 15,000 signatures.<\/p>\n<p>Those in support of the memorial cited a need for healing and reconciliation following the &#8220;politically motivated&#8221; killing of Kirk, according to the petition, and said that the memorial will be a reminder of the &#8220;importance of open dialogue and peaceful discourse&#8221; in the community. <\/p>\n<p>The petition against the memorial states that Kirk was known for his &#8220;divisive rhetoric&#8221; and that his organization, Turning Point USA, has been criticized for promoting messages that &#8220;some consider homophobic, transphobic, and racist.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;UVU prides itself on being a diverse and inclusive institution that fosters an environment of learning and growth for all students, regardless of their background. Erecting a memorial for Charlie Kirk would undermine these core values and might alienate students who represent different political, racial, and cultural backgrounds,&#8221; the petition reads. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OREM, Utah (KTVX) \u2014 The Student Democratic Society organized a protest on the Utah Valley&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2437,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions\/2437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}