Higher Education

OSU student reprimanded after honoring Charlie Kirk in speech

October 6, 2025

Ray Carter

Josh Wilson, a junior at Oklahoma State University, has long been interested in public policy and free speech, which led him to be involved in the OSU student government and the debate society. He also volunteered with Turning Point USA, the organization founded by free-speech activist Charlie Kirk, when Kirk visited the Stillwater campus in April.

So when Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10, the same day as a student-government meeting, Wilson took a few moments to speak to fellow students at the meeting, calling on students of all beliefs to remember that “true progress begins with dialogue.”

The following week, Wilson was verbally reprimanded by OSU’s coordinator of student-government programs, Melisa Echols, who claimed that students could be “triggered” by the speech because Wilson wore a Turning Point USA hat.

The hat, which Kirk had given to Wilson in April, contained the numbers 45 and 47, a reference to President Donald Trump. Echols claimed wearing the hat made Wilson’s speech a partisan event in violation of student-government rules, told Wilson he should talk to “people that don’t look like you” despite Wilson being a member of a racial minority, and warned him that this year “is going to be difficult for you” if he rejected her claim that he acted in a partisan manner.

Wilson’s Sept. 10 speech contained no references to Trump, nor did it advocate for the election of any political figure or call for support of any political party.

Instead, Wilson called Kirk “a father, a husband, a devout Christian, and a shining light for so many.” Wilson recalled that during Kirk’s April visit to OSU, Kirk was able to “provoke discussion and dialogue among countless students on this campus,” noting that in the aftermath of Kirk’s visit, “conversations about culture and politics are happening like never before” at OSU.

“He lived with the hope that debate could spark conversation in a country that, for too many years, had lost that ability,” the prepared text of Wilson’s short speech stated.

Wilson decried Kirk’s assassination as “horrendous and vile, just as political violence of any kind is,” and urged OSU students to embrace free speech and engagement rather than violence.

“May we carry forward his legacy by refusing to shy away from difficult conversations, by standing firm in our convictions, and by remembering that true progress begins with dialogue,” Wilson said.

The following week, Echols called Wilson to her office and berated him, saying his hat violated the student government’s rules on nonpartisanship, even though Echols admitted Wilson had the right to speak on the issue of Kirk’s assassination.

“As a person who doesn’t look like you and has not had the same lived experience as you, I have family who don’t look like you who are triggered—and I will be very candid with you—who are triggered by those hats and by that side,” Echols told Wilson.

She appeared to suggest, repeatedly, that the political views one holds are a product of racial identity.

“I would challenge you to ask others who don’t look like you” and “have open conversations with anyone that has a different lived experience and see what, if anything, that might do for someone else, aside from someone who is politically aligned the same as you,” Echols said.

She similarly told Wilson he should “look at the lived experiences of those around you that may or may not agree with you.”

“Ask yourself: Have you had those levels of discourse with people that don’t look like you, have not had the same lived experiences as you?” Echols said. “And what does—or did, and even do—wearing something like that or even saying something like that, how did that impact them?”

Wilson pointed out to Echols that he is Cherokee and noted he routinely interacts with people from different backgrounds and viewpoints.

“I don’t like to pull that card,” Wilson recalled in a separate interview. “But if you’re going to pull that card on me, I might as well.”

Notably, Trump enjoyed far higher levels of support among certain minority groups than most Republicans in decades. Among black men, Trump received 24 percent support in the 2024 presidential election, according to AP VoteCast. He also received the support of 47 percent of Latino men. A post-election analysis indicated that Trump received 39 percent of the Native American vote, while one survey showed that Trump may have received as much as 51 percent of the Native American vote.

During his meeting with Echols, Wilson again reiterated his view that free speech and open debate are crucial and should be preserved at OSU, telling Echols, “Any student in general should have the liberty and not show any fear of expressing their thoughts and ideas. And that’s what I wholeheartedly believe as the president of the debate club and as an individual is that idea and conversation is what built this country, and it’s what should maintain it. And that’s what the hat was there for.”

Throughout the conversation, Wilson told Echols he understood her argument, but did not agree with her view that wearing a Turning Point hat was partisan, given the context, and he rejected the idea that the hat was harmful to other students.

At one point, Echols became angry that Wilson continued to defend his decision.

“‘But’ cannot be the end of every statement. That’s not a learned lesson,” Echols said. “It cannot just be, ‘yes, but’ – cannot be every response that you give me. Otherwise, this year is going to be difficult for you.”

Wilson said he viewed that comment as “a veiled threat.”

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs reached out to Echols seeking comment. She did not respond.

However, Oklahoma State University provided a comment.

“The OSU Student Government Association has a nonpartisan tradition; however the organization has no official policies to restrict partisan expression, and the organization has not enacted or enforced such a policy. The student in question spoke freely during last month’s SGA meeting and expressed his views without interruption or restriction,” OSU’s statement declared.

“The university is committed to protecting, promoting and facilitating free expression for all students, regardless of their views, and clarification regarding SGA policies has been provided to appropriate university staff,” the statement continued. “OSU embraces its role as a marketplace of ideas, and we believe a robust public discourse is essential to the process of addressing society’s most pressing challenges, which is our charge as a land-grant institution.”

[For more stories about higher education in Oklahoma, visit AimHigherOK.com.]