Hamilton's Response to the Death of Charlie Kirk

Photo by Gage Skidmore, Flickr

On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, a right wing podcaster, was shot and killed at Utah Valley University. On September 11, 2o25, President Steven Tepper sent an email to the Hamilton community inviting them on a Silent Walk the following morning with him and Provost and Dean of Faculty Ngonidzashe Munemo. 

The invitation read, “It is important to bear witness to the horrific event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, which strikes at the core of our commitment to learning together free from violence and intimidation. We also acknowledge ongoing violence across the country and world. It is a difficult and complicated time.”

Reactions to this choice to hold a walk for someone who advocated for less gun reform was mixed. 

In an email to The Monitor, Tepper explained his reasoning for holding a walk. “I felt that we needed to be together without words -- because our words were failing us in terms of learning and seeing one another…Students and staff were reaching out to me over the past 2 days who were unsettled and worried about the shooting and its implications,” he said on September 12. “I welcome every opportunity to help our community process and bear witness to tragedies that impact us. Violence on another campus -- especially targeting a campus speaker -- strikes at our very core as a learning community.”

Around 40-45 members of the Hamilton community showed up to the walk, which Tepper said, “made me proud to be at Hamilton.”

But not all students appreciated this walk. “I think Tepper’s response was largely inadequate given both the traumatizing video of the shooting itself and the fact of the shooting’s occurrence within the worsening political climate,” one anonymous student said. “A half-hour ‘silent walk’ seemed like a cop-out of sorts, an acknowledgement without actual discourse. It was uncomfortable that classes continued as normal throughout the day.”

Eva Jo McIlraith‘26 said, “I am upset with Tepper’s response just because I felt that he reacted with more compassion for Charlie Kirk than he has for other tragedies that have happened so far this year.” They added, “Why didn’t he respond to [the] Minnesota lawmaker’s assasination?”

Tepper clarified that the silent walks are, “a practice that I began last year after I was hearing from students who were very upset by the violence in Israel and Gaza” and that he also held one “in response to the violence in Kashmir, which was hosted by the South Asian Student Association,” there had been recent shootings that also illustrated the gun violence that the US is facing, including one on the day that Kirk was shot.

Tepper said that he chooses when to hold walks based on, “what I am seeing and hearing from our community.” He hopes “this is a pluralistic approach, rather than one that predetermines which issues and which members of the community get selected for ‘reflective time together.’  Quiet reflection rather than loud declaratory statements can help us hold space. And this does not preclude other forms of expression or protest from our community.”

He added, “I wish the shooting was unique. These events are becoming all too common..the rhetoric around the shooting suggests that too many people see violence as an acceptable way to confront political disagreement and polarization.”