People walk in front of a memorial for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 29, 2025.Jim Urquhart/Reuters hide caption A week into fall semester at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, the campus's grassy, terraced courtyard bakes under the heat of full late August sunlight.
The sound of trickling water from a fountain that meanders through the space beckons students to stop, chat and unwind.But Collin Grannis, who graduated over the summer, said the space hasn't had much activity since Charlie Kirk was assassinated there last year."It used to be very lively.
People doing homework, people taking their food to eat outside, people to hang out.I remember people taking naps on the grass, like right in that area," Grannis recalled.
"And it's been fully cleared out because people have that association with it."The quiet of the courtyard belies the violence that took place in it a year ago, and the deepened social rupture that followed.The hard-right activist was killed in front of an audience of thousands while he was debating a student with progressive political views.
The co-founder and then-leader of Turning Point USA, Kirk was arguably the most influential conservative youth movement leader in a generation – and his death set off an unprecedented frenzy of intimidation, harassment and threats that seemingly reached into every corner of the country.People walk near the site where conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was killed on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Aug.
28, 2026.Jim Urquhart for NPR hide caption As the country has seen an accelerated erosion of political norms over the last decade, violence and personal a...