After conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem, the college commissioned a security review, a new task force started scrutinizing campus safety and Utah lawmakers looked into changes they could mandate to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

A year after Kirk’s death, none of that work is done, though some of it is nearing completion.

Utah Valley University expects to release findings of an independent review in about a month, a spokesperson said Thursday, adding a date has not yet been set. The school had originally planned to make the report public in late spring, but that timeline was tentative, said Sharon Turner, senior director of communications for the university.

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“We’re just hoping for a way forward that improves on methods we’ve already put in place,” Turner told Utah News Dispatch. “There’s always room for improvement, and I think being aware of that is beneficial to our students, who are the most important part of our jobs.”

At an outdoor speaking event attended by some 3,000 people last year, Kirk was shot while answering a question. The sound of the gunshot sent his audience running for cover and triggered a manhunt for the suspected shooter that lasted almost a day and a half.

In the days after the shooting a year ago, the political polarization that erupted over Kirk's death reflected deep divisions over his legacy and the circumstances surrounding the attack.

A judge last week ordered 23-year-old Tyler Robinson to stand trial for aggravated murder in Kirk’s death. Robinson, accused of using his grandfather’s hunting rifle to fatally shoot Kirk from a rooftop on the campus, has pleaded not guilty. If he’s convicted, prosecutors said they’ll seek the death penalty.

The university did not hold classes Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the shooting, and Governor Spencer Cox declared it Charlie Kirk Day in the state. Turning Point USA, the group Kirk co-founded, was scheduled to hold a memorial Thursday evening at an arena on the UVU campus it rented for the occasion.

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Before last year, much of the discussion surrounding campus safety in Utah revolved around sexual assault involving students. The killing of University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey in 2018 then drew the focus to intimate partner violence and stalking.

Kirk’s death seven years later shined a spotlight on safety planning for events. Experts criticized the light security for Kirk’s appearance last year, staffed by six UVU officers and without assistance from deputies from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.

Separate from the review commissioned by the university, the Utah System of Higher Education launched a task force last year to study campus safety. The group is evaluating safety across Utah’s eight public colleges and universities and plans to recommend a set of standards for those institutions, though a spokesperson said there’s no timeline yet for when its findings will be made public.

A bill introduced in early 2026 would have changed Utah's campus gun rules, banning open carry and making concealed carry easier at public universities — part of the broader safety debate following Kirk's death.

Those recommendations will inform parts of a broad school safety proposal that Representative Ryan Wilcox said he’s planning to sponsor in next year’s legislative session, which convenes in January. But he said he won’t give details on his bill until the task force releases its report, which he expects to happen by the end of this year.

K-12 schools in Utah must conduct safety assessments every three years under a 2024 state law. Wilcox proposed a similar requirement for colleges the following year, but the state Senate rejected that component early in 2025, before Kirk was killed.

Wilcox had considered bringing back his push for school safety assessments this year, but opted to coordinate with the Utah System of Higher Education on improving the colleges’ security measures and planning ahead of campus events.

“If there’s anything comforting that we could communicate, it would be that by no means is USHE — or us — sleeping on the issue,” said Wilcox, a Republican from Ogden and chair of the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee. “We’re still wide awake and watching, and involved in those conversations.”