OREM – The president of Utah Valley University’s Turning Point USA chapter says he believes students on both sides of the Charlie Kirk memorial debate have more in common than they realize.
Caleb Chilcutt, who has led the chapter for nearly two years, said in an interview with the UVU Review that he personally supports state Senator Daniel McCay’s proposal for the memorial – a functional table with seating, featuring a symbolic microphone and Bible with Kirk’s name or initials.
“I really like the idea of having a table and the seats right in front of us, like you and I right now, where we can sit down, have lunch, just kind of have an actual purpose for this table,” Chilcutt said. “We can also have a discussion like you and I are having right now, but also having that symbolic microphone and Bible on the table as well.”
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated on Sept. 10 while speaking at an event in the Sorensen Courtyard on UVU’s campus. The university formed a memorial committee in the weeks following the campus shooting, though Chilcutt said neither he nor the chapter were consulted before its creation.
“I personally don’t represent my chapter on this part… a lot of them want, from what I’ve heard, a memorial in Charlie’s likeness…but personally, I think Senator McCay’s proposal is the best one.”
Common ground with protestors
Chilcutt said he does not support a statue depicting Kirk’s likeness—a position that aligns him with many of the protesters who have voiced opposition to certain memorial proposals.
“I think we agree more than we disagree,” Chilcutt said of the protestors. “My hope, I guess, is if I do get the opportunity to meet these protestors, these people who are trying to combat what’s going on right now with the Memorial Committee, that they can sit down with me and we can discuss and kind of be on the same page.”
He cited concerns about vandalism and the campus becoming a “tourist hotspot” as reasons he opposes a statue.
Chilcutt also proposed an idea he said he hasn’t heard discussed elsewhere: renaming the courtyard – which he suggested could be called “the Kirk Courtyard” or “the Charlie Courtyard.”
“I don’t think we need to go as far as naming it like the Charlie Kirk Courtyard,” he said. “I think, like, the Charlie Courtyard or the Kirk Courtyard is more than enough.”
Chapter response to assassination
The TPUSA chapter, which Chilcutt said at the time of interview has 271 registered members on UVU’s club roster with more applications pending, has been working to support students affected by the shooting.
A company in North Carolina that works with civilians affected by trauma in Ukraine, which Chilcutt did not name, donated kits to the chapter containing materials to help identify and cope with PTSD, stress, and shock. The chapter has been distributing them at their weekly tabling events.
“We’ve been blessed with the student outreach at UVU with, like, the professors reaching out, giving us different resources,” Chilcutt said. “So we’ve been taking and optimizing those resources that the university has been handing out and distributing them to students.”
Chilcutt said he was particularly grateful for the response from students who previously opposed the chapter.
“People who a semester ago would come up to us, flip us off, name call us, laugh at us— typical rhetoric that people who don’t like us would share—those same people have come up to us after the attack and shared their condolences with us,” he said. “And if you want to talk about unity, campus after we reopened was really unified, especially when we were tabling…so I’m really appreciative of that support that not only the campus has shown our chapter, but also that students have shown the chapter.”
Memorial committee involvement
Though Chilcutt is not on the memorial committee, he said he has been in contact with some committee members, including Senator Daniel McCay and Dr. Matthew Brogden from the Constitutional Studies Department at UVU.
He said chapter members have assumed he is involved in the committee process.
“I’m not,” Chilcutt said. “I’m just hearing back from people who are in the committee, kind of what they’ve been talking about. But most of it is all just public information, It’s nothing new or nothing secretive.”
Chilcutt said he does not know the identities of the three student representatives on the committee, and none have reached out to the TPUSA chapter.
Looking ahead
When asked how the memorial might impact daily campus life, Chilcutt acknowledged tensions may remain high for several years.
“My hope is kind of when more students kind of grow and move on, and the new students come in, it can be used as something good,” he said.
A professor, Chilcutt said, reminded him that similar debates occurred following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, yet decades later, memorials to King were widely accepted.
“My hope is that, that’s kind of what Charlie’s memorial can be as well in 60 years’ time,” he said.
Chilcutt encouraged students who feel their voices aren’t being heard to submit feedback through the memorial committee’s online form, which can be found by searching “UVU Memorial Committee.”
“I think if a student doesn’t feel as if their voices are being heard, there are at least three options that I’m aware of that I think would represent them best,” Chilcutt said, citing the committee form, as well as both the UVU Review and Turning Point’s social media pages.
Students with information or perspectives on the memorial can contact the UVU Review at uvureview.com/contact.
