Utah

President of Utah university where Charlie Kirk was killed to resign from role

Published

2 months ago

January 16, 2026

President of Utah university where Charlie Kirk was killed to resign from role

Astrid Tuminez, Utah Valley University’s seventh president, will step down at the end of the semester. She announced the decision on Wednesday during a State of the University address, speaking to a packed audience of students and faculty.

Tuminez, 61, said in an interview that the decision to step down had been building for some time. “There’s never a good time,” she said. “I love UVU so much.” The choice, she explained, came with a mix of grief and relief. “It is a swirl of emotion. I am heartbroken on one hand, but also happy and excited on the other, because life has its rhythms.

“I cried a lot last night, and I am not crying today,” Tuminez said, as she told the crowd she planned to leave the role in early May.

The decision follows a year marked by personal grief and institutional crisis. Her husband, Jeffrey Tolk, died suddenly in February 2025. “My heart was broken. There’s no other way to describe it,” Tuminez told the Guardian. In a later interview, she described the loss as leaving her “disconsolate and desolate”.

Months later, on 10 September 2025, the day that would have marked her husband’s birthday, Tuminez was travelling to Rome on a planned spiritual pilgrimage when news broke that Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old far-right commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, had been assassinated on campus.

“Our bodies feel these things,” Tuminez later told the Guardian. “Just utter shock, like my whole body was on fire.”

The killing thrust Tuminez and the university into the centre of a national political crisis, as political violence in the US intensified and the Trump administration escalated pressure on universities over campus speech.

Utah Valley University is still reckoning with the aftermath of Kirk’s death. Many faculty, students and state officials remain divided over how to remember Kirk, with some Republican leaders and university officials pushing to memorialise him, while others have warned against politicising the campus tragedy.

Tuminez, who became president in 2018, was the first woman, the first person of colour, and the first immigrant to lead Utah Valley University, located in one of Utah’s most conservative counties. She has described her ascent to the role with characteristic understatement. “I’m an accidental university president,” she said. “I never planned for this. It wasn’t even on the list.”

Trained as a scholar of Soviet politics, Tuminez has worked across academia, government and international institutions, an experience that shaped her approach to leading the university through an increasingly polarised national moment. She has argued that universities remain central to the American project, describing them as “facilitators of the American dream”, and has said they should prepare students to grapple seriously with questions of civic discourse.

Her nearly eight years as president, one of the longest tenures in Utah’s public university system, were marked by significant growth and institutional change. During her time in office, enrolment increased by more than 20%, the university’s endowment more than doubled from $55m to $129m, graduation rates rose sharply, fundraising expanded and new centres were established in applied artificial intelligence, fintech and constitutional studies.

Her departure comes as universities across the US face mounting political pressure from the Trump administration, including heightened immigration enforcement and deportation of many students, visa restrictions affecting dozens of countries and growing fears among international students. Tuminez, herself a former international student, said she remained concerned about what a more closed US could mean for higher education.

“One of the superpowers of America is our influence globally,” she said. “We educate people who go back and lead in their home countries.” She said she had hoped to expand UVU’s international student population, arguing that openness benefits both local students and those who come from abroad. “I had to get my own F-1 visa,” she added. “It was very, very difficult. “I think it’s good for Utahns, and it’s also good for these students, to have this experience, to be educated here.”

She framed the moment as political flux rather than sound policy, suggesting decisions driven by fear or politics risk long-term harm. Tuminez said she was concerned that fear among international students and a more closed immigration posture could erode one of the US’s defining strengths: its openness to the world. When asked about her next chapter, Tuminez was clear about one thing: she plans to pause. “I need a break,” she said. “This is not the kind of job you do for seven and a half years and feel rested.”

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Utah

Utah Blanks Philadelphia, 3-0 | Utah Mammoth

Published

6 hours ago

March 6, 2026

Press Room

Utah Blanks Philadelphia, 3-0 | Utah Mammoth

Schmaltz’s 24 goals this season are a new career-high. He’s been a consistently strong presence and has taken on more responsibility with the switch from wing to center. His goal on the power play came just eight seconds into the man-advantage and opened the scoring early in the second period. In addition to his goal, he had an assist on Utah’s second goal of the game. Tourigny discussed Schmaltz’s maturity following the win.

“He’s a mature person, mature man,” Tourigny explained. “He really wants to make a difference. I always say about Schmaltz, (he’s) a gamer. He wants to play in those moments, and I think he’s excited about where our team is at, and he wants to be a big part of it, and he is. He’s a huge leader for us.”

Utah held Philadelphia to 16 total shots: four in the first period, seven in the second, and five in the third. The Mammoth showed their strong defensive game in the win.

“I think that’s when we’re at our best, when we’re defending hard,” Schmaltz said. “We’re playing with a lot of pace, not giving them time and space, frustrating them, and making them force plays, and then we turn it over and go the other way.”

On the flip side, against a stingy Philadelphia defense, Utah generated 23 shots including 14 in the second period. Schmaltz spoke to what led to the increased opportunities in the middle frame.

“A little bit more direct,” Schmaltz shared. “I think our transition game was really good. We were catching them, kind of hemming them in. Good line changes and just rolling them over and shooting a little bit more.”

In addition to Schmaltz’s goal, Captain Clayton Keller scored his 19^th of the season seven and half minutes after his linemate’s tally to increase the score to 2-0. Michael Carcone’s empty net goal with 1:48 left in regulation secured the 3-0 win.

Additional Notes from Tonight (per Mammoth PR)

The Mammoth’s power play went 1-for-2 against the Flyers. Utah has scored seven power play goals in seven games (7-for-18, 38.9%). On the other side of special teams, the Mammoth’s penalty kill went 3-for-3.

JJ Peterka played his 300^th NHL game. Peterka was selected 34th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft and is the ninth player from his draft class to reach the milestone. He is also just the eighth German-born forward in NHL history to accomplish the feat.

Keller has recorded 11 points in his last seven games (2/2-3/5: 3g, 8a), finding the scoresheet in six of those contests.

With two assists tonight, Dylan Guenther has posted his second straight multi-point outing (3/3 at WSH: 1g, 1a) and his third in five games (2/25 vs. COL: 2g).

Utah has won the first two games of a five-game road trip. Up next, the Mammoth travel to Columbus and face the Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

Upcoming Schedule

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Utah

22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

Published

18 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Officials have identified a 22-year-old man as the suspect in a Las Vegas homicide case that killed two people in a Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Detectives say 22-year-old Ziaire Ham was the suspect in the case. According to officials, Ham was located on Tuesday, March 3, by the Ogden City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Ham was taken into custody and booked into the Weber County Jail. Las Vegas authorities said he will be charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon and will be extradited back to the valley.

MORE ON FOX5: LVMPD corrections officer arrested on multiple felony charges

The shooting occurred Monday night at the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street, near Starr Ave and Dean Martin Drive.

According to police, officers were conducting a vehicle stop in the area when they heard gunfire. After searching nearby neighborhoods they found a car with bullet impacts with a woman and a toddler inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

The pair were transported to hospital where they later died. The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified them as Danaijha Robinson, 20, and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner.

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Utah

Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

Published

1 day ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A simple moment watching a child laugh changed everything for Ivan Gonzalez.

Eight years ago, Gonzalez was working at the Ronald McDonald House when he had an idea to throw a birthday carnival for the kids staying there.

“Let’s do a carnival, birthday carnival for the kids,” he said.

MORE | Pay It Forward

What happened during that event stuck with him.

“There I was watching this kid play whack-a-mole, just having a blast, laughing,” Gonzalez said. “And then I see his mom kind of with happy tears because he’s enjoying himself.”

That moment led to something bigger.

Gonzalez realized the experience shouldn’t stop with just one event or just one group of kids.

“I said, wait, we can do this not just for kids in the hospital,” he said with excitement.

So he started a nonprofit called Best Seat in the House, which creates events and experiences for children who often face difficult circumstances.

“We provide events and experiences for disadvantaged kids,” Gonzalez said.

The organization serves children battling cancer and other medical conditions, refugee children, kids living in poverty, those in foster care and children with special needs.

“These kids grow up too fast,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez, the mission is deeply personal.

“I grew up very poor,” he said.

He remembers the people who stepped in for his family when they needed it most.

“The local church, we weren’t even a part of it,” he described. “My parents couldn’t afford Christmas gifts and I still remember the gifts they gave me. They didn’t even know me.”

Today, he hopes to create that same feeling for other children through his nonprofit.

“Kids live in poverty and they don’t know where the next meal is coming from, let alone going to a play or to a game,” Gonzalez said.

But for Gonzalez, the reward isn’t the events themselves, it’s the joy they create.

“You can give me a billion dollars, all the money in the world,” he says as tears roll down his face. “I won’t trade these opportunitieskids just enjoying life.”

Because of his work giving back, KUTV and Mountain America Credit Union surprised Gonzalez with a Pay it Forward gift to help him continue creating those moments for kids across Utah.

For more information on supporting Best Seat in the House, click here.

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