False information skews reality behind Charlie Kirk memorial relocation

A memorial in honor of the late Charlie Kirk, a Conservative activist, was removed from a tree outside of Point Loma Nazarene University’s Nease Hall last week because of a failure to follow university protocol. The incident has stirred negative responses across members of the PLNU community, including alumni, about its policies and delay in making a public statement recognizing his assassination.

The memorial, which included flowers and a poster of Kirk, was collected by the Department of Public Safety on Sunday, Sept. 14 because the university had not preapproved it, which is a protocol required for all signage hung on campus property, according to Connor Mathisen, director of community life. 

For confidentiality reasons, the identity of who initially hung the memorial wasn’t revealed to The Point. The Students for Life club president, Sarah Shaw, a third-year psychology major, said that after she saw the poster and flowers, she had the idea to hold a memorial in that area on Sunday at 7 p.m.

A social media post made last week by Lidiya Harvey, a PLNU alumna, titled “The Christian School that Denied Charlie Kirk,” criticized PLNU for becoming “increasingly hostile to conservative and traditional Christian viewpoints,” addressing the removal of the memorial and rejection of a Turning Point USA chapter, a nonprofit that promotes Conservative principles, founded in 2012 by Kirk. Some of the claims made in the post do not reflect the truth of what happened. Despite Shaw contacting Harvey to clarify that PLNU did not remove the memorial, but relocated it, this information was not shared on her Instagram page.

After The Point made multiple attempts to reach Harvey for a comment, she did not respond.

“All these people’s assumptions and the rumors and information being spread around, they just changed it a lot from the original story,” Shaw said.

Shaw said that she wanted to share her side of the story of what actually happened between her and the university.

The Students for Life club advertised the memorial on its Instagram page, and it caught the attention of a campus staff member who reported it to Mathisen. He said that because the memorial did not have prior authorization to be hung on campus, Public Safety removed it, but allowed the owner to collect and move it somewhere else, with proper authorization. 

Mathisen called Shaw at about 4:40 p.m. on Sunday to let her know that the memorial had been removed, so the club wouldn’t be confused when they arrived at the memorial, and to ensure she knew the proper guidelines for holding club meetings.

“Me reaching out to Sarah, the goal was to make sure that the event could happen,” Mathisen said.

He said that according to the club and society handbook, clubs are allowed to host meetings whenever they would like; however, hosting events open to the student body must be approved by Nathan Blanco, Associated Student Body director of student relations.

“Because of the timing of the [Students for Life’s] post that came out, and then the timing of the event being that evening, we wouldn’t have had time to get the authorization,” Mathisen said.

In their conversation, Mathisen said that Shaw had said she was thinking about moving the memorial to McCullough Park, a location on campus near the Fermanian School of Business, instead.

“At no point did I tell her that she needed to move the vigil from in front of Nease to McCullough Park,” Mathisen said. “That was a decision, as far as I know, that Sarah and her club made on her own.”

Shaw said that while she admits she offered to move locations, she felt there was no choice.

“We really just wanted a space to be able to honor Charlie Kirk, and to have just a night of prayer and worship,” Shaw said. “I think a lot of people believe [PLNU] forced us to move for different reasons, but technically they didn’t force us to move, but I felt like I had to.”

From there, Mathisen contacted Jeff Bolster, PLNU vice president of university services, about what the guidelines were for holding meetings at McCullough Park. According to Mathisen, Bolster said that because the park is within proximity of nearby neighborhoods, the guideline was that the event had to end by 8:30-9 p.m. The event also needed to be limited to club members for safety reasons, Bolster said.

“Since our campus community is over 1,700 residential students, when events grow to the hundreds, it is easy for problems to emerge,” Bolster said in an email interview. “Particularly, if individuals outside of our campus community join the event. … I attended the vigil myself, it was well attended and no one was turned away.”

At the memorial, the club supplied its own table with candles and a poster of Kirk.

Jerome Brown, a fourth-year business administration major and president of PLNU’s Student Veterans of America (SVA) chapter, brought American flags for members to place on the grounds of McCullough Park and leave overnight. When Brown returned the following day, on Monday, to collect the flags, they were gone. 

To discover where they went, Brown said he contacted Public Safety, and they eventually determined that it was the Grounds Maintenance Department that disposed of them. 

“I’m not going to lie, that left a sour taste in my mouth because I think we’d have a little bit more respect for the flag,” Brown said. “As a veteran, it disappoints me.”

Brown said the school took ownership and said they would purchase new flags for the SVA.

“Students should be allowed to engage in these activities, and they should feel supported by the school,” he said. “I don’t think some students feel supported by the school right now.”

In Harvey’s post’s caption, she said PLNU officials have “continued to deny the formation of a Turning Point USA chapter,” but Blanco, who manages all campus clubs, said he is only aware of a one-time rejection in 2021, because, at the time, there were multiple clubs already active that carried similar values, including the Republican, Democratic and Students for Life clubs.

“Clubs can’t overlap,” Blanco said. “That’s why it was turned away.”

Two years ago, the Democratic and Republican clubs failed to pass the torch of leadership, which is why they are not active today, Blanco said. However, the clubs made an appearance at PLNU’s Club Fair on Sept. 5, and after reaching out numerous times about making the clubs official, Blanco said he has not been able to reach anyone. 

He also said that he has not been contacted directly about the possibility of bringing a Turning Point to campus. He said he has only heard about the desire through word of mouth.

Regarding the possibility of bringing it to campus, Blanco said he’d “love to talk about it.”

President Kerry Fulcher sent an email to undergraduate students on Sept. 19, addressing why the memorial had been removed from Nease Hall and providing an explanation for the university’s delay in recognizing Kirk’s assassination. 

“Some have questioned why the university did not issue a public statement [about Kirk’s assassination]. In 2023, we created a framework to guide when PLNU speaks as an institution about tragedies or losses that take place beyond our community,” a part of Fulcher’s email read. “We will reevaluate our current policy to determine whether adjustments are needed to better serve our community.”

“I think a lot of people are just making a lot of assumptions as to what happened, but it was purely just regulation, like the school wasn’t maliciously trying to shut us down; they were just asking us to stick to regulations,” Shaw said.