“Due to increased safety concerns related to the speaker and in consultation with public safety professionals and Sharon McMahon, Utah Valley University has decided to proceed without a featured commencement speaker for this year’s ceremony,” UVU said in a news release.

When asked what the safety concerns were, a UVU spokesperson told the Daily Herald “we cannot elaborate at this time.”

The announcement comes after state leaders and conservative groups on campus called for UVU to reconsider the “tone-deaf” decision to invite McMahon, a civics educator and self-described “America’s Government Teacher,” due to comments she made following the assassination of Charlie Kirk on campus last year.

In a since-deleted social media post from Sept. 12, two days after Kirk was shot and killed on UVU’s campus, McMahon shared quotes from Kirk followed by her own thoughts, saying that “millions of people feel they were harmed” by what Kirk said.

“It’s important to remember that the incredible tragedy of a public assassination does not erase the harm many experienced from his words, and the ensuing actions his followers took,” McMahon said, according to a screenshot from the deleted post.

Republican state Reps. Mike Kennedy, Burgess Owens and Celeste Maloy all condemned UVU’s decision, along with Sen. Mike Lee and House Speaker Mike Schultz.

“UVU made a tone-deaf decision with its choice of commencement speaker,” Kennedy said in a social media post Wednesday. “The students who witnessed the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk on their campus deserve better. Inviting a commencement speaker who publicly dismissed Charlie Kirk after the tragic events on campus is a slap in the face to students and others still dealing with the traumatic aftermath.”

UVU’s commencement ceremony will be held at 7:30 p.m. on April 29 at the UCCU Center.

“We look forward to coming together as a community to celebrate UVU’s largest graduating class in history, with more than 13,400 graduates, about one third of whom are the first in their families to graduate from college,” the university said.