On April 15, UC San Diego’s chapter of conservative student organization Turning Point USA announced that Charlie Kirk would be visiting UCSD at 12 p.m. on May 1. One week later, on April 22, the Costco Club announced that it would be hosting the third annual chicken eating event at the same time. With both events on May 1, the one year anniversary of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, could it really be a coincidence?
A few days ago, I received word from an anonymous UCSD staff member that the UCSD administration “planned the whole thing,” and the chicken event “is how the school is trying to distract people from Charlie Kirk.” They suggested that UCSD administration conspired to plan and promote a deliberate distraction from the conservative influencer. Considering that administrators cancelled last year’s Sun God Festival — citing the security concerns stemming from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment — this year’s decision to co-opt another student tradition is evidence of more conspiratorial intentions.
Publicly available evidence only supports the claim that the administration used the Costco Club to distract from Charlie Kirk’s appearance. On Instagram, @ucsdampitheater and @ucsdtritonlife posted an advertisement on behalf of the Costco Club. Multiple UCSD Instagram accounts commented on the post in a likely attempt to boost engagement, suggesting cooperation between the student organization and administration. In previous years, the Costco Club hosted this event in early Spring Quarter and announced it several weeks in advance. Why would the organization forgo a proven marketing strategy in favor of a rushed campaign?
Adding to the abnormality, renting the Epstein Family Amphitheater on such short notice should have been impossible considering that the venue does not accept reservations from student organizations less than 21 days in advance. Jacob Hoang, president of the Costco Club, confirmed in an interview with The UCSD Guardian that he utilized his position as Associated Students chief financial officer and his connections with Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Life Patricia Mahaffey to reserve the amphitheater and coordinate advertising. This ultimately suggests that the Costco Club hastily planned the event on behalf of the administration, and the administration deliberately promoted it.
Regardless of the extent of collusion, the administration’s promotion of the chicken event failed to overshadow Kirk’s. Although many students participated in the annual tradition of watching the Costco Club president eat a rotisserie chicken, attention on campus and social media was heavily tilted toward the conservative influencer. Zakaria Kortam, a principal member of TPUSA, promoted the Kirk event by pointing out the proximity of the two events and suggested that students talk to the conservative influencer after leaving the amphitheater. The chicken event ended much earlier than Kirk’s, leaving hundreds of students to interact with Kirk’s most deranged supporters. The TPUSA event became a de facto Trump rally — evident by the sea of red MAGA hats and the provocateurs masquerading in Immigration and Customs Enforcement jackets that seeded the crowd surrounding Kirk — creating a politically charged atmosphere that has not been seen since the University administration broke up last year’s encampment.
The administration’s promotion of the chicken event was antithetical to general student sentiment and its previous actions. An op-ed by The UCSD Guardian Senior Staff Writer Nicholas Reason asking students not to engage with Kirk was shared thousands of times on social media. By ignoring how students actually felt, the administration unintentionally put hundreds, possibly thousands of students in the presence of the most passionate right-wing extremists. Recklessly gathering students in one place only increased foot traffic around Kirk, brought more attention to TPUSA, and made May 1 an unnecessary spectacle.
While activists camping out on Library Walk supposedly justified the deployment of militarized police on campus, the administration prepared for fascist sympathizers by co-opting a beloved student tradition. The anniversary of the encampment should serve as an opportunity to remind the community that the administration is willing to sacrifice our safety for its own political interests.
mark • May 6, 2025 at 11:40 am
bro what the fuck are you talking about
Raul • May 6, 2025 at 11:04 am
Charlie Kirk has every right to speak at UC San Diego, just as students have every right to attend, protest, or ignore his event. Likewise, the Costco Club has every right to host its annual rotisserie chicken-eating event — a campus tradition rooted in humor and student culture, not politics. What they don’t deserve is to be smeared in a baseless conspiracy theory built on speculation and a single anonymous source.
Suggesting that the administration “co-opted” the Costco Club’s chicken-eating event to distract from Charlie Kirk’s visit is beyond absurd. Even more far-fetched is the attempt to link a lighthearted student tradition to the anniversary of the Gaza encampment — especially when no students organized any public commemoration of that date. If students had wanted to mark the anniversary, they were entirely free to do so. No one was silenced. No one was stopped. To pretend otherwise is dishonest, and it insults both the intelligence of this campus and the integrity of those who care about genuine activism.
If the author truly cared about student activism and freedom of expression, they could have explored a real and pressing issue: why students may have chosen not to organize a Gaza encampment commemoration this year. In today’s political climate, with students across the country being arrested simply for protesting peacefully, it’s entirely possible that some feared retaliation or disciplinary action. That’s a serious concern — one worth discussing — but it has absolutely nothing to do with a chicken-eating event.
The author’s attempt to tie in the cancellation of last year’s Sun God Festival only further exposes the lack of research behind this opinion piece. If he had done even minimal fact-checking, he’d know that the festival was canceled due to a shortage of UC security personnel — many of whom had been redirected to other campuses facing protest-related disruptions. The administration made a difficult, unpopular decision based on safety concerns. And let’s be real: if Sun God hadn’t been canceled and something went wrong, this same author would likely be first in line complaining about why the school didn’t act.
At a time when misinformation and manufactured outrage dominate national discourse, it’s disappointing to see that kind of rhetoric trickle into our own campus conversations. Instead of stirring up drama with outlandish theories, we should be focusing on facts, context, and basic good faith.
The Costco Club didn’t hijack student activism. They didn’t distract anyone from anything. They brought people together through a silly, harmless, and widely loved tradition. If you see a chicken-eating event and decide it’s part of an institutional cover-up, maybe the problem isn’t the chicken — maybe it’s your need to invent enemies in a place where none exist.
UC San Diego deserves better than paranoid finger-pointing. Let’s not turn every coincidence into a conspiracy.
Alex • May 5, 2025 at 7:09 pm
I’m not sure why this was published, tbh. There’s no direct evidence other than a “word from an anonymous UCSD staff member” that seemed to not back their claims with anything other than a “trust me, bro”. On top of that, all of the other points I feel is just Lee trying to find nefarious intent behind tiny details, like UCSD Instagram pages liking and commenting on each other’s posts to create this illusion of some conspiracy while having nothing but a hunch to back it. I get that this is an opinion piece, but sharing conspiracy theories that could harm the reputation of people I don’t think is ok for the Guardian to do.