Charlie Kirk Memorial Sparks Campus Divide

Classes are off, security is up, and tensions are high at Utah Valley University as a remembrance for Charlie Kirk lands on the anniversary of his killing. Turning Point USA is staging what it calls a "deliberate act of remembrance" for its founder on Thursday night at the Orem campus, drawing high-profile conservative speakers including Glenn Beck and Michael Knowles, per the New York Times. The memorial has split the 48,000-student campus. Some students praise Kirk as a free-speech martyr and plan to attend; others resent the university's one-day shutdown and describe the event as turning a trauma into a quasi-holiday. A left-leaning student group is organizing a protest, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. Kirk's accused killer, Tyler Robinson, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges. More on the anniversary of Kirk's death:

• The Intercept delves into how the far right tried to turn Kirk into a martyr but instead "made him a meme."
• How is Turning Point USA doing a year after the shooting? NPR says its future is "uncertain."
• Six people talk to the Washington Post about how Kirk's murder reshaped them. "Charlie's death is what caused me to ask questions and eventually find Jesus," one Virginia attorney reveals.
• The Tribune also talks to Hunter Kozak, the student and new dad who was at the mic asking Kirk a question when the latter was gunned down. Kozak says in the year since, he's been the subject of death threats and conspiracy theories. He and his family have had to move, and he's now in weekly therapy, but he says he doesn't want to live being constantly paranoid. "I want to trust the people around me," he says. "I think that's the only way through."
• Axios notes that Kirk's wife, Erika Kirk, recently penned an essay for the New York Times, reflecting on how she has handled her grief since his murder. "A year ago, when I felt it coming over me, I wondered whether it would swallow me completely," she wrote. "Now, I recognize it; sometimes I even welcome it, because for a moment the grief makes Charlie feel impossibly close." She also reveals the one piece of advice that second lady Usha Vance gave her right after Charlie's killing. More here.