OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
12:53 PM – Wednesday, September 9, 2026
A group of Utah Valley University (UVU) students are reportedly planning to protest a memorial for Turning Point USA (TPUSA) co-founder Charlie Kirk, marking one year since his assassination on the Orem, Utah campus.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a left-wing group at UVU, are planning to protest on Thursday outside of a private memorial service hosted by TPUSA.
Some students are displeased with the university’s decision to cancel classes for the day, according to a report from The Salt Lake Tribune. In an email sent last month, the university said the closure was intended “to provide time and space for reflection, service, and connection.”
The group of left-wing college students hosted a “de-escalation training” on Tuesday, where they prepared signs for the protest that included messages such as “no Kirk on campus,” “don’t tolerate intolerance,” and “UVU is a place for unity, not division,” KUTV reported.
Collin Grannis, who led the meeting, said that SDS holds de-escalation training each semester, but Monday’s session focused on the upcoming memorial service.
“We want people to get out there and get political and to be able to protest and exercise some of their rights without being scared,” Grannis said.
The group also emphasized its opposition to both the memorial service and the proposal to build a permanent monument for Kirk on campus.
“We want to oppose bigotry, and we want to oppose right-wing ideology on campus. That’s our main push,” Grannis said.
He also claims that he instructed the group to avoid any violent confrontations that could arise.
“None of our group will be carrying weapons,” Grannis said. “We ask that no weapons — no guns, no knives, no batons, no weapons of any kind.”
“All that we’ll be able to do is stand outside, but if we can make people as uncomfortable as possible to get in,” Grannis said in a recording of an SDS planning session, first published by The Cougar Chronicle.
Blaze Media founder Glenn Beck responded to the planned protest in a social media post on Tuesday.
“A human life was taken on your campus grounds, and you’re so blinded by tribalism that you can’t even sit out a memorial service? What is wrong with you? Can we just have a single day out of the year without you sacrificing basic human decency at the altar of your political narcissism?” the conservative media company owner remarked.
The university later stressed its non-political status, adding that the memorial is not sponsored by UVU, and that it would be providing security based on the event’s size and potential for heightened tension.
“As an institution, it’s important that we stay apolitical, that we don’t jump in the fray,” Utah Valley University President Jon Anderson said. “Any entity could’ve used that space, and they chose to have that day. And we allowed them to do that.”
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