Students Anonymously Threaten UChicago TPUSA Members For Staging Campus Booth

On October 27th, multiple alarming anonymous posts were made on the University of Chicago’s Sidechat page, where users are verified as members of the university through logging in with valid UChicago email addresses, threatening to murder TPUSA’s UChicago chapter president and other TPUSA members at a Turning Point USA Booth set up at the university’s Reynolds Club building. TPUSA was promoting an upcoming November 4^th event at the college with conservative activist Will Witt.  

Sidechat is a mobile platform that allows students within the same university to communicate with one another through anonymous posts, comments, and direct chats. Access to UChicago’s community page requires the presentation of a university email address, confirming its members are associated with the university. One of the anonymous posts made by a UChicago student asked: “Anyone trying to reenact the shooting in front of the tpusa booth.” Others, in response to a comment about the presence of the TPUSA booth at Reynolds Club, said “someone should recreate it in front of them” and “turn them into the next #charliesquirt,” clearly referring to the September 10th assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.  

 Upon seeing these messages, TPUSA UChicago chapter president Tyler Shasteen, who was tabling at the time, quickly notified nearby university administrators whom, after being briefed on the situation, recommended for the tabling event to be prematurely ended. As of this publication, the three posts threatening murder have seemingly been removed from Sidechat.  

The University of Chicago has been notified about these comments, and the situation is ongoing.

When asked for comment, TPUSA UChicago chapter president Tyler Shasteen stated: “It’s truly unfortunate that threats and hateful comments are being directed at us. While we take them seriously, our mission is about bringing students together. We will continue to staff our table and promote our event to students on both sides of the aisle. The rapidly increasing interest, with new members joining our chapter every week, shows that students are hungry for the kind of dialogue we’re fostering here. We’re excited by this growth and will not let negativity overshadow it.” 

The University of Chicago released the following statement in response to the incident: “The University is aware of recent anonymous comments on a social media platform that endorsed violence and were highly offensive. Safety is a top priority at the University of Chicago, and providing a safe environment on campus for dialogue, debate, and expression is part of our core values. Threatening language runs contrary to the University’s values of free and open inquiry. We have robust processes in place—through Deans on Call and the University of Chicago Police Department—to promote safety at campus events. We strongly encourage members of our community who feel threatened or have concerns about their safety to contact UCPD at 773.702.8181.”