Utah’s colleges and universities formally beefing up security after Charlie Kirk killing
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Utah universities appear to be on the way to upgrading their security after Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University, according to a new report.
On Friday, the Utah System of Higher Education, which oversees the state's schools, approved a report that reviewed the security at the institutions and made recommendations for upgrades.
"We want the higher education community to know that our leaders, our law enforcement, and emergency management professionals all worked together to develop this," USHE Board Chair Amanda Covington said in the report. "So we have great insights and recommendations in support of enhanced campus safety across the entire system."
The report comes a little more than a year after Kirk was shot and killed at UVU during a live debate event. Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Kirk, was not a student at UVU. He is facing charges of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. He has pleaded not guilty.
The report identified 25 areas for improvement across all of its campuses. It recommended standardizing the process for providing security for campus events and for improved inter-college communication about potential threats.
"Here’s an opportunity for us to get together, to be able to share information in real-time but also as we work on best practices, to bring us all up to the level of safety and security that we can provide for our communities," the state's Department of Public Safety Chief Keith Squires, an author on the report, said.
The report also called for better and more open communication between colleges and law enforcement organizations or private security companies working at campus events.
Reactions to the report's suggestions were mixed. At Snow College, President Stacee McIff said the administration was excited to implement the changes at the small campus.
"A school like ours is pretty small, and we don’t have all of the resources that the larger schools have," she told FOX 13. "We are excited about the recommendations and how we can kind of beef up and accelerate some of the work we’re doing with campus safety."
Greg Peterson, the president of Salt Lake Community College, told the broadcaster the university didn't have the "capacity or funding" to implement.
USHE is asking the Utah State Legislature to free up $5 million to hire a statewide campus safety coordinator and for various safety upgrades.
The security recommendations come a week after Utah Valley University released its report analyzing the day Kirk was killed.
It found that "at no time during the events leading up to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, or in its aftermath, did any employee or agent of UVU act in bad faith or in willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others."
