Opinion

I’m a university president. Our profession should finish what Charlie Kirk started

Survey found 15% of students said using violence to stop a campus speech is sometimes or always acceptable

By Dr. Kent Ingle Fox News

Published September 9, 2026 9:00am EDT

Comments Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Print Email Add Fox News on Google

close

Video

Charlie Kirk's legacy lives on through next generation

One year after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, those closest to him talk about what it means to carry on his mission.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

One year ago this week, on Sept. 10, Charlie Kirk was killed on a college campus in the middle of a debate. He was 31 years old. He was sitting under a tent at Utah Valley University in front of roughly 3,000 people, taking a question from a student who disagreed with him, and he was shot in the middle of his answer.

I have thought about that scene for a year, and the detail that still bothers me is the tent. Charlie had to bring his own stage, his own microphone and his own security to hold an open debate on an American campus. Every campus in this country has a hall built for that purpose. The room was ours. So was the job.

Charlie and I sat down together at Southeastern University in 2022. No stage, no cameras, no audience. We talked about two things that turned out to be the same thing: how to fix American higher education, and where the next generation of leaders was going to come from. He wanted to know whether institutions like mine were still forming leaders or had settled for processing students.........

© Fox News