The Utah campus where the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed last year is in the spotlight again — this time, as the site of a memorial on the anniversary of his assassination.
Turning Point USA, the influential conservative organization founded by Mr. Kirk, is holding a “deliberate act of remembrance” on Thursday evening at Utah Valley University in Orem to honor Mr. Kirk. The anniversary prompted the university to cancel classes and step up security, while also pulling the 48,000-student college back into debates over political violence and Mr. Kirk’s legacy.
The memorial has divided students. While several said they planned to attend, calling Mr. Kirk a martyr to free speech and Christian conservatism, others objected to the university’s shutting down for the event and said they wanted to move on from the tragedy.
The notoriety of Mr. Kirk’s killing “is all we are now,” said Ruby Olsen, 20, an anthropology major, who had been watching Mr. Kirk speak when she heard the rifle shot that killed him.
Last September, Mr. Kirk was fatally shot during an on-campus speaking event that was attended by thousands, a killing that set off fierce debates about political violence and free speech across the nation.
Prosecutors have accused Tyler J. Robinson, a 23-year-old man from southern Utah, of shooting Mr. Kirk from the roof of a nearby building and charged him with aggravated murder, saying he killed Mr. Kirk because of his political views. Mr. Robinson, who could face the death penalty, has pleaded not guilty.
In the days leading up to the memorial, which will be held at the university’s events center and basketball arena, people connected with Turning Point walked through the sunny campus handing out fliers for the event and urging students to register for a seat. Speakers at the memorial will include the right-wing pundits Glenn Beck and Michael Knowles.
“It’s a way to honor him,” Jimmy Thurston, a 21-year-old engineering student, said as he put a rose in a planter near the grassy sunken plaza where Mr. Kirk was killed. “This was a national tragedy.”
But the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society is planning a protest outside the memorial to oppose Turning Point’s event, as well as the university’s decision to cancel classes for the day.
“This is almost like making this a holiday,” Ethan Cunningham, the president of the campus Students for a Democratic Society, said in an interview.
A year later, the memorial is just one way that Mr. Kirk’s killing still echoes across campus.
Utah Valley University is conducting a lengthy security review of the shooting and faces divisions over whether to build a permanent memorial on campus to Mr. Kirk. Last spring, the university stumbled into another debate over free speech when it invited — and then canceled — a graduation speech by an author who had criticized Mr. Kirk.
Jon Anderson, who became Utah Valley’s president last month, said in an interview that he planned to attend both the memorial and the protest. He said he would speak to students on both sides of the divide, in an effort to show that the university is a place “where people can bring any idea and have a civil place to have an honest dialogue.”
Dr. Anderson said that the university had not received any specific threats related to the anniversary and that he expected the campus to be calm on Thursday. In place of classes, the university is holding a “day of service” on Thursday, with campus leaders going to a pancake breakfast, cleaning yards and painting fences at a local elementary school.
Dr. Anderson said Utah Valley University would not close down for future anniversaries of Mr. Kirk’s killing.
But for some students, even once was too much.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Olsen, the anthropology student who had been present at Mr. Kirk’s killing, looked across the grassy courtyard where he was shot. Visitors snapped photos and prayed beside a large wooden crucifix they had carried in with them.
Days after Mr. Kirk’s killing, a huge American flag was hung above the plaza, and this week, a flag was unfurled in the same spot. To Ms. Olsen, it was an unwelcome reminder of the chaos and panic attacks she had endured last year.
As she and two friends chatted in a student lounge, they said they still loved the campus and their classes. But attending Utah Valley University now meant threading their way past assassination tourists and living in the shadow of Mr. Kirk’s death. They said they had no interest in going to the memorial.
“A lot of us are trying to get over it,” Ms. Olsen said.
Her friend Ashlyn Bullock, 20, said the university’s slogan, “A Place for You,” did not fit anymore. “It doesn’t really feel like a place for us,” she said.
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