Just days after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot on campus last year, Utah Valley University’s administration promised to hire an outside company to review what went wrong.

That included delving into whether UVU provided enough school police officers for the high-profile event, which drew thousands of attendees into the open courtyard where Kirk was killed. It also involved investigating whether local law enforcement agencies had been looped in ahead of time about the potential need for back-up.

But a year since Kirk’s death, those gaps remain unaddressed. An independent review has yet to be released — despite the school previously saying a report would come out this spring.

The school’s new president, Jon Anderson, defended the monthslong delay, saying in an interview last week: “They wanted it to be as complete and correct as possible, rather than fast.”

The Salt Lake Tribune filed a public records request for what information is available so far, such as who the school hired to conduct the review and how much it’s spent.

Initially, UVU declined to say how much it’s spent. The Tribune appealed that decision, and the public university ultimately provided receipts through the end of May.

Those show UVU had spent $242,431 total up until then for two companies to work on an external review together. The school declined to say how much it has spent in the more than three months since; The Tribune continues to push for that.

Anderson responded: “That is all still in progress. I don’t know to date what they’ve spent.”

The documents the Tribune did receive show the school hired law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, based in Colorado, as well as The Lake Forest Group, a security consulting company in Illinois, to conduct the review.

Each signed a nearly identical contact with UVU. Anderson said both were hired because they each offer a different set of expertise: One has legal experience, and the other is working to review the event’s tactical response.

The contract records are heavily redacted, but overall, they note the companies were hired to review UVU’s security on Sept. 10, 2025, both before and after Kirk was shot, and provide an “after-action report” detailing the school’s shortfalls.

Kirk had come to campus as part of his “Prove Me Wrong” tour. A single shot was fired from a nearby rooftop as he was answering a question. The man accused of killing him was bound over for trial last week.

‘It’s just taken time’

The school said in a brief news release after the shooting that it hoped the review would detail what it could’ve done better, as well as how to “strengthen safety practices” both at UVU and across Utah’s public universities and colleges.

The school formally posted an RFP, or a “request for proposals,” for companies to conduct the review on Nov. 5 — about two months after the assassination.

UVU’s public bid website shows the RFP was then closed on Dec. 8. Eight companies placed bids; the two organizations ultimately hired scored the highest with their proposals.

Contracts weren’t signed for another three months, which fell months behind the schedule UVU initially announced. The RFP had mandated that the chosen company “must demonstrate the ability to initiate services no later than the first week of January 2026.”

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s contract wasn’t signed until March 3, though, and The Lake Forest Group’s until March 5.

Anderson was not at the university when that happened. He took the helm just last month, replacing former UVU President Astrid Tuminez, who stepped down at the beginning of May.

But he said he’s been on top of tracking the report. Despite the delay, Anderson said UVU has been “incredibly thoughtful” in making sure it’s done right.

“When we get the report, it will be very comprehensive,” he said. “And it’s just taken time to get it to that point.”

The RFP required a report completion decline “ending late spring 2026.”

Now, Anderson said, the report will likely be finished and released sometime next month.

Comparing the cost

UVU has said eight campus police officers were at Kirk’s event before the shooting: six in uniform and two in plain clothes. Kirk also had eight personal guards.

In the aftermath of the assassination, the university’s police chief, Jeff Long, previously said: “You try to get your bases covered and, unfortunately, today we didn’t.”

Outside of that, though, UVU has declined to answer many questions about the event until the independent report comes out.

It has not responded to criticisms, for instance, that it had too few officers on scene, that it failed to loop in local law enforcement in surrounding cities and that it didn’t sweep buildings and nearby rooftops ahead of the event.

“They’re very valid questions, and they’re important questions,” Tuminez said in a previous interview. “Because there is an ongoing assessment — this third-party assessment, which is what’s usually done in these cases — it is very important to have the patience to wait for that comprehensive, deep analysis by a third party in order to understand all aspects of security.”

Other universities, including in Utah, have conducted similar reviews. But they’ve usually been cheaper — and finished much faster.

The University of Utah, for instance, hired an independent team of three law enforcement experts to investigate how campus police responded to student-athlete Lauren McCluskey’s repeated concerns before she was later shot and killed on campus in October 2018 by a man she briefly dated.

One of those reviewers, Keith Squires, declined compensation; he was later appointed as the U.’s chief safety officer. Another received $25,000, and the third was paid $200 per hour; both also had expenses, such as travel, reimbursed. Overall, the university spent less than $75,000 total.

That review, which took two months, found that McCluskey’s and her friends’ reports to both campus police and housing officials were not taken seriously.

The U. also spent about $150,000 in 2023 on an independent investigation into abuse allegations levied against former gymnastics coach Tom Farden.

Similarly, Utah State University spent about $140,000 in 2024, at least initially, to investigate former football Coach Blake Anderson over how he allegedly handled a player’s domestic violence arrest.

Through May, UVU has paid The Lake Forest Group $155,700 for working on the after-action report, including travel to Utah. Separately, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck has received $86,730 for its work.