Some USC students expressed their concerns about campus safety following the death of Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist and founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
Kirk visited USC on March 3 as part of “The American Comeback Tour,” a series of TPUSA speaker events in which Kirk debated political topics with students. On Wednesday, Kirk was shot on the same tour at Utah Valley University while speaking with an audience member.
Kirk’s presence at USC was met with mixed opinions from students, but many weren’t concerned about campus safety.
Julio Rodriguez, a senior studying finance and real estate development, said he was not concerned with potential security risks during Kirk’s visit to campus.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that something like that could happen at USC,” said Rodriguez. “Because we had the secure campus at [the time of Kirk’s event].”
Joseph Kim, a sophomore studying human biology, said the security enforcement was swift when he witnessed a confrontation between a “seemingly left-wing person and right-wing person.”
“They were having a conversation, and I think I saw a little fight break out,” Kim said. “But within five seconds, the police or security came and broke it up, so no one was really hurt.”
Now, some students do feel afraid. Rodriguez said safety could mean returning to previous security measures like requiring individuals to scan their IDs at gated checkpoints when entering campus.
“Now, it’s just college campuses being targeted, so it’s kind of a scary idea that something such as a political event expressing your freedom of speech can turn into a violent event,” Rodriguez said.
Gabi Sullivan, a senior studying business administration, said she was aware of the risks when attending political events and didn’t attend Kirk’s event for that reason.
“I didn’t want something like [a shooting] to happen, but I think it’s just now more people are aware of it,” Sullivan said. “I never thought that something like that would happen on a college campus.”
However, she said USC does not need to return to stricter security measures.
“USC is a private school, but I think it’s great that it’s open to the public, and I don’t think that it should change because of what happened yesterday,” Sullivan said.
Rodriquez said he’s discouraged to see the freedom of speech and expression in education threatened.
“I just feel like we shouldn’t let this change the way people are trying to express themselves, and at the same time, people should be able to express themselves freely,” said Rodriguez. “It’s sad to see now people are more scared to talk about politics and scared to be on campus events as well. This is where people should be spreading culture, ideas and education. It’s just disheartening.”