Astrid Tuminez closes Utah Valley University tenure with a call for joy

OREM — Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez chose to focus Wednesday night's commencement ceremony on joy.

"We live in difficult and lonely times marked by meanness, shrillness, hatred, fear mongering and, yes, even violence," said Tuminez, who is stepping down as the leader of the university. "In the past year, I personally faced profound grief, sorrow, trauma, political pressure, hate, unkindness and stabs in the back.

"But no, I'm not that sad."

Students, families and friends could feel the joy radiating from Tuminez as she entered the ceremony with her iconic green-and-black pompoms. She opened the event, congratulating the university's largest graduating class, totaling over 13,400 students.

For the past 7½ years, Tuminez has been UVU's No. 1 cheerleader.

Finding joy in a tumultuous year

In 2025, the president of the state's largest university experienced grief, both personally and with the student body.

Her husband and soulmate, Jeffrey Tolk, died unexpectedly in February of last year, but Tuminez previously told the Deseret News that she embraces the pain. "To become human is to go through grief like that, that shatters you. In the shattering, you're going to put yourself back together again."

Months later, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on UVU's campus, and Tuminez shared in the grief of those pained by the violent death.

She told the 2026 graduating class on Wednesday to "let grief and sorrow be your teachers."

"Be willing to enter the dark, the inferno, the unknown, the forest. Embrace and experience all that you don't want and wish to resist. You will emerge on the other side, transcended, more fully human, your heart bigger, your soul softer as it communes with the tears of all the earth. Your capacity to serve and love will grow."

Despite the challenges that come with life, Tuminez's advice to her last graduating class was simple:

"So why joy in especially difficult times? I believe it becomes ever more important to choose and create joy. It is a form of beautiful rebellion."

Student Body President Kyle Cullimore reflected a similar sentiment on the certainty of choice that everyone, especially he and his fellow graduates, now have as they set out to make their mark on the world.

"We will always have the choice of how we react to a situation like we've seen all throughout this last year," Cullimore said in his remarks on Wednesday. "And that's powerful, but it's also complicated.

"What I've come to believe is it's not about making this perfect choice, but it's about making a choice and choosing to invest in it, choosing to believe in it, and choosing to fight passionately for it ... because at the end of your life, no one is going to ask how many options you had or what choice you chose not to pursue. They're going to care about how you lived and who you lived it with."

When faced with controversy

Earlier this month, UVU once again made headlines over controversy surrounding its originally intended commencement speaker.

After UVU named "America's Government Teacher" Sharon McMahon as its 2026 commencement speaker, criticism surged across social media, including among Utah's GOP congressional leadership, who sharply criticized UVU's decision to invite McMahon.

The controversy centered around comments she made about Kirk just days after thousands witnessed his assassination on the campus grounds.

Though it wasn't pointedly mentioned during the event, Tuminez did paraphrase a quote of McMahon's in her closing remarks to show, it seemed, her support for the influencer.

"Let me close by paraphrasing a famous influencer of the internet who's also a history teacher. She said, '(Joy) is a choice that we make each morning, and we don't have the luxury of (joylessness) if you want to make progress.' Dearest graduates, may you embrace joy in all moments, and may joy embrace you in return."

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