A self-described liberal professor at a Georgia university says it is important to sponsor the school’s Turning Point USA chapter, even though he holds different political views.

"My principal motivation was just giving students an outlet for their political expression," Nicholas Creel, associate professor of business law, and co-director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Georgia College & State University, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.  

"I was listening to the would-be, soon-to-be president of the chapter tell me about his attempt to get it started, that he was having a hard time getting a faculty advisor to say yes to it, including one that, you know, even admitted that he was probably ideologically in alignment with them, but being pre-tenured just felt uneasy about it," Creel said. 

Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University during his American Comeback Tour.

CHARLIE KIRK’S DEATH GALVANIZES BLUE STATE STUDENT TO STOP 'HIDING' HER FAITH, POLITICAL BELIEFS

Despite his young age, Kirk had become a giant in the conservative movement and was a key facet of President Donald Trump's 2024 election victory. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 as an 18-year-old with encouragement from Tea Party activist Bill Montgomery.

Creel said he was initially concerned about backlash if people found out about him sponsoring the group, which he began doing in the spring of 2022. 

"To be honest, I didn't advertise to anybody that I was doing it, in part because it was something that I knew could potentially attract some negative attention my way," Creel said. "You know, the group is polarizing and so not wanting to bring that attention to myself. It was an intentional decision for me to not really highlight that to any significant degree and kind of keep it close to the best until I had gotten tenure, at which point I felt far more comfortable in talking about it."  

He said his perspective was strengthened after reading a line about cowardice not going away with tenure.

"It's easy now on the other side of tenure to tell people, ‘Yeah, go ahead and take these risks,’" Creel said. "But at the same time, I've heard somebody say before this one comment and I can't remember who it was, but the comment they made really stuck with me when I had read it and it was, ‘If you're a coward before tenure, you're going to be a coward after.’"

"Yes, it's a shield of protection that's going to make it more difficult for somebody to persecute you," Creel added. "What you say and what you write about but at the same time, if you're never willing to speak up, it almost sort of breeds passivity for the rest of your career. And so realize that standing up for principles is important. It is one of those things that we've just got to do and when you're able, it's definitely a risk worth taking."  

YEARS OF CAMPUS ATTACKS ON CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS RESURFACE AFTER CHARLIE KIRK’S MURDER

Creel also discussed his decision to sponsor the TPUSA chapter in a recent guest essay in The New York Times.

"Being a liberal professor who advises a branch of Mr. Kirk’s organization isn’t a contradiction; it’s proof that exchanging ideas with both conviction and civility remains possible when we’re willing to model it," he wrote.

Lauren Jones and Mia Simmons are the co-presidents of the Turning Point USA chapter at Georgia College & State University, and recently told Fox News Digital in an interview that they are still grappling with Kirk’s assassination. 

"It was like a time period where I was like, I'm going to remember this forever," Jones told Fox News Digital of her reaction to hearing about Kirk's assassination. "I was in my school's library. I had gotten a message about it. I was about to go do a tutoring session because I tutor privately. And I was, like, this is insane. This can't be real." 

Creel said he's gotten good feedback for his work with the group.

"The response I've gotten to this from conservatives has been overwhelmingly positive," Creel said. "That conservatives have very much come out in support of this, thanking me, expressing their thankfulness that somebody in the academy, which is very often and very often accurately viewed as being very liberal in its leanings, to see that there are people up there that put principle over it."

TURNING POINT USA SAYS CAMPUS CHAPTER REQUESTS SURGE TO OVER 32,000 AFTER KIRK'S ASSASSINATION

Liberals, however, have not been as positive, with some even viewing it as a betrayal.

"The only negative comments I've gotten, which are not that many, of the 200 or so emails and phone calls and comments I have gotten, probably only about three or four negative, but it has been universally those on the left that see it almost as a betrayal because again, they just don't have the ability to put aside that political belief and the fact that it doesn't reconcile with the beliefs of the organization," he said. 

"But I've been very happy to see that conservatives have seen that this does exist within the academy, that there are professors doing it, and that I hope that we're entering a time where there's more professors willing to do this sort of thing."