Almost two weeks after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a Utah Valley University speaking event, the Orem school has announced it “is creating a committee to develop a memorial.”
According to a news release Monday, the committee will be co-chaired by Scott M. Smith, UVU Board of Trustees chair and Qualtrics co-founder, and Amanda Covington, Utah Board of Higher Education chair. It is unclear if anyone else has been selected to serve on the committee.
The panel will include “students, political leaders and other key stakeholders,” according to the release. Community members can share ideas and receive updates at uvu.edu/memorial.
“As a committee, we will listen to community voices and carefully consider the many perspectives surrounding this memorial,” Convington said in a statement. “This is an important process, and we are committed to approaching it with thoughtfulness and respect.”
Calls for a memorial sprang up immediately after the Sept. 10 shooting.
Utah Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, started a fundraising campaign for a tribute, which has since raised nearly $119,000.
According to the description on the fundraiser’s page, McCay envisions a bronze table with two chairs, with a microphone on the table next to a Bible. Each section of the sculpture would represent something different, from “an enduring invitation to sit, reflect, and continue the dialogue” to “an open call for the next voice to rise.”
“This memorial is not only a place to remember; it is a place to be inspired, to engage, and to keep building on the legacy Charlie left behind,” McCay wrote.
McCay also met with Utah sculptor Ben Hammond, the creator behind a statue of Martha Hughes Cannon that made its way to the U.S. Capitol last year. Hammond crafted two draft clay concepts based on the senator’s idea, one with figures and one without.
McCay posted on the social media platform X that the pieces gave him “chills.”
Hammond told The Tribune on Monday that he is not a part of UVU’s committee.
In his previous discussions with McCay, Hammond said he’s “less interested” in doing a sculpture or portrait of Kirk, but rather wants to memorialize open debate.
“My job as an artist … I’m not trying to let my voice be heard out there,” Hammond said. “I’m trying to help people’s vision or ideas come to fruition and hopefully put an artistic spin on it and make it something compelling visually.”
Last week, two students at Utah Valley University — Mary Grace Jackson and Emma Thatcher — started a petition against a memorial that would pay tribute to Kirk specifically because it would “misrepresent the values UVU stands for.”
“What happened must not be forgotten. But remembrance should not take the form of a partisan monument,” the petition states. “If UVU chooses to create a memorial, it should honor the principle of free speech or stand against gun violence, not canonize one figure whose views do not align with UVU’s mission.”
As of Monday, the petition had over 3,300 signatures. It called for no statue to be erected in Kirk’s image, and for no campus buildings or roads to be renamed after him.
Jackson told The Tribune the petition is “not a partisan statement.”
“It’s really important that we are not dancing on anyone’s grave,” Jackson said. “It’s also important that we are not canonizing this man into something that he’s not.”