AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The executive director of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) chapter at the University of Texas at Austin said he does have concerns following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college campus in Utah.
“We’re definitely going to be requesting more security measures at our events,” Ethan Xu, the UT chapter director said. Xu, a junior at UT Austin studying economics, said he was shocked to learn about the shooting of Kirk on Wednesday afternoon. Kirk had set up a tent to give college students a chance to debate with him on a variety of political issues, something he has done on countless college campuses in the past.
“It’s just terrifying that could happen in the United States of America,” Xu said.
His concerns stem from the public assassination and a video that started circulating online following the shooting where a person went onto the university’s campus to interview students and get their reactions to Kirk’s death.
“There were several students who said that they’re happy that Charlie Kirk died,” Xu said of the video. “Someone said, ‘Girl, someone had to do it.’ And it’s frankly disgusting that sort of behavior goes on UT’s campus.”
The university has multiple student organizations for both conservative and liberal students to join. Xu said his group has never faced any violence at any of their activist events.
“The next couple of months we may have to regroup, but hopefully going forward this will not impact our desire to to make our voices heard on campus and invite people who who may be controversial to come speak on campus,” Xu said about the future of the group.
Xu said the student organization invited Aaron Reitz, a Republican candidate running for Texas Attorney General, to the campus next week to speak to the group. Reitz describes himself as the MAGA option in the Attorney General race.
According to the university’s rules on speech, expression, and assembly, it is the school’s responsibility “to protect the safety of all persons on campus and to provide police protection for speakers, public assemblies, persons staffing or viewing exhibits, and other events.”
Public speech on Texas campuses
The shooting comes right after a new state law went into effect that updated free speech policies at every public university across Texas. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R – Conroe, authored Senate Bill 2972 in response to protests that sparked up on college campuses across the nation in 2024. Those protests stemmed from the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
The law requires universities to update their policies to prevent individuals and groups not associated with the university from assembling on campus for expressive activities, like protests.
A spokesperson for UT Austin said the university updated its policies this month to revert it back to a long-standing policy that was in place before 2019. “Student, faculty, and staff organizations may not invite the public at large to events in the Common Outdoor Areas or Dedicated Areas while academic and administrative units may continue to invite the general public to their events,” the rules read.
The Texas Tech University System modified its freedom of expression rules in August to designate each outdoor common area as a “limited public forum.” Only members of the university are allowed to assemble for purposed of expressive activities. UT Austin’s rules also state its campus is a limited public forum.
A spokesperson for UT Austin said any off-campus organization or individual who violates the law could face criminal trespass charges.
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