ATTENTION! PLEASE READ ALL!! (updated 9/12/25) Wednesday, September 10th at Utah Valley University, after Charlie Kirk was shot, UVU’s protocols for student and faculty protection in active shooter situations were disappointing at best.  After Charlie Kirk was shot, there was no PA announcement regarding a lockdown. Students, faculty, and visitors were fleeing the building instead of being under lockdown in classrooms and buildings. I was in my Spanish class in the Clarke Building (CB) when 2 student males entered our unlocked classroom and told us to leave as there was an incident at the Charlie Kirk rally. As I left the Clarke Building (CB) I saw students, faculty, and visitors standing around in the parking lot as well as in front of the Fulton Library (FL) instead of being under lockdown.  As there was no immediate lockdown many students started to run / walk to their cars to leave, clogging entrances and exits for police and other emergency vehicles to get to the University. The way traffic was backed up was a safety hazard. Instead of a PA announcement over the Universities intercoms telling students, faculty, and visitors to go into lockdown, we were delivered a single “emergency”email stating, “UVU Alert: A single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker. Police are investigating now, suspect in custody. for more info go to.” Charlie Kirk was shot at approximately 12:20 PM MST according to UVU. The first announcement we got from the University regarding an active shooting was through an email sent at 12:44 PM MST, 20 minutes later after Charlie Kirk was shot. The University stated that the suspect was in custody when they sent out the first email, however no suspect was in custody during that time. Meaning students, faculty, and visitors, not under lockdown, were outside, standing, and confused on what was happening, not receiving any immediate warning from the university, while there was a shooter on the loose. 

 After they sent out the first email, there were no updates until 1:11 PM MST when they sent out a second email. The second email states, in summary, that the campus will be closed and that if you are still on campus to follow police direction. After that the University sent out multiple different emails all at different times (timestamps provided) which included a lot of contradictory and confusing information. I, among many students, am extremely disappointed with the way that this situation was handled. Utah Valley University was not well equipped in case of an emergency. I believe that Utah Valley University needs to change the way they handle situations such as today to avoid possible danger to students and faculty. I started this petition so our voices are heard! Students, visitors, and faculty at UVU felt unsafe in the way the events were handled today, and we are begging for stricter lockdown policies to be put in place to ensure that nothing like this happens again in the future!