After Kirk’s Death, Students Return to Campus and Learn ‘How To Be Adults’

Raymond Lopez, a first-year student at Utah Valley University, was still wearing black scrubs from an overnight shift as a nursing assistant on Wednesday when he settled onto a purple couch by a makeshift memorial to Charlie Kirk.

It was the first day that classes had resumed since Mr. Kirk, a conservative activist, was slain last Wednesday, maybe a five-minute walk away from the memorial. Mr. Lopez, 26, brought a sign he made, black marker on bright green poster board, advertising “Free Hugs.”

“I just didn’t want people to feel scared to be on campus because I know that I’m scared to be on campus,” Mr. Lopez said. “I don’t really know how else I can help.”

There were big bear hugs and outpourings of gratitude, but business at the free hugs couch was slow, if steady, as Utah Valley turned from a crime scene back to a working campus. Most students rushed past with little more than a glance, a nod to a truth about Utah Valley, and about the nation at large.

For many of the 3,000 or so people who packed into the campus courtyard to see Mr. Kirk, and for those at the university who center politics and faith in their daily routines, the tragedy may be a defining event in their lives. But with 46,000 students, Utah Valley is a small city of a school, and a lot of them on Wednesday just seemed in a hurry to get back to class.

“I’ve never heard anyone be like actively political and starting things that don’t need to be started,” said James Jordan, 21, a student from Syracuse, Utah, who is in his second year studying business management. “I think everyone here gets along really well, because we’re just all really busy.”