The U.S. Air Force Academy Association of Graduates board did not vote Friday on whether to honor late conservative leader Charlie Kirk, who died in a September shooting, because the motions were withdrawn.

Retired Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, an AFA graduate and a board member of the Association of Graduates, had nominated Kirk for honorary membership in the group and recommended him for an honorary academy degree. The association can’t grant a degree and there is no process for the academy to grant an honorary degree.

The motions to honor Kirk were withdrawn on Friday, according to a written statement from the nonprofit. A withdrawn motion can be introduced at a later time, under Roberts Rules of Order.

The nominations prompted several hundred Air Force Academy graduates, parents and family members to contact the association, the association said.

The Association of Graduates is typically an apolitical group focused on issues such as raising money for special academy projects, raising awareness about academy needs and graduates’ accomplishments. The group has honored 47 non-graduates with association membership to recognize outstanding and conspicuous service. Previous honorees have included former superintendents, teachers and coaches.

Only President John F. Kennedy has been honored as a member of an academy class, said Wyatt Hornsby, spokesperson for the association.

Bishop said Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, was deserving of the honor in an online blog post that lauded his love of the country and the vision of the Founding Fathers.

“I can’t think of anyone I have ever met that better exudes all of the qualities of a candidate that we as USAFA graduates would want to count among our numbers than Charlie,” he wrote in the post. He did not immediate respond to request for comment.

Bishop ran among a slate of five conservative candidates for the 16-member association board in the spring. Bishop and four others were elected. He is also a member of Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services or STARRS, a group dedicated to eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the military.

The nomination to honor Kirk prompted swift backlash among other Air Force Academy graduates online, with some promising to withdraw their financial support from the association if the honors were approved.

Some appeared at the meeting, with one graduate turning in his academy class ring.

Professor Rachel E. VanLandingham, a national security law expert at the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and an Air Force Academy graduate, said Kirk did not have a meaningful enough connection to the academy to qualify for the honors. He was appointed to the Air Force Academy’s advisory Board of Visitors earlier this year, but she said Kirk was not qualified to serve in that position.

The nominations also “represents the shameful and dangerous campaign of the politicization of the U.S. Armed Forces by this Administration and some of its supporters,” she said.

Michael Weinstein, who leads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said he has been in touch with graduates and clients who were stunned that the nominations to honor Kirk ever happened.

“He was a hateful divider,” said Weinstein, who added he doesn’t condone Kirk’s shooting.

The academy and its association should uphold the values of equality in the Constitution, he said. Weinstein’s foundation has fought the academy for years over religious freedom and open records laws.

Now board members at the association seem to have embraced “extreme right-wing ideology,” he said.

Weinstein expects board members may bring back motions to honor Kirk in the future, since they were withdrawn today and said those who opposed the effort will need to be vigilant.

“I am ashamed of my alma mater that this ever happened,” he said.

Kirk, who did not graduate from college, founded Turning Point USA, a group focused on campus activism and promoting free market and limited government principles.

President Donald Trump appointed him to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors, an advisory group to Air Force leaders and Congress. He attended one meeting as a newly appointed member of the group, where he raised concerns about the long timeline of reconstructing the Air Force Academy chapel and eliminating race as a consideration in the admissions process.

After his death, Trump honored him on what would have been his 32nd birthday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Recently, cadets posted on Instagram they were holding a Turning Point USA meeting in Polaris Hall on campus.

The Air Force Academy has not approved the establishment of an official Turning Point USA Chapter or official cadet club at this time, the school said in a statement.

Retired Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop’s title has been corrected. The number of board members and the number of board members elected as part of the Unity Slate has also been corrected.