Some Notre Dame University students were planning a less-than-happy homecoming for Vice President Mike Pence when the former Indiana governor delivered the school’s commencement speech Sunday in South Bend.
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Some graduates planned to walk out as he received an honorary degree. Others planned to protest right outside the stadium where the graduation ceremony was being held — and invited people to join them. About 100 students participated in the walkout when Pence took the stage, while some in the crowd cheered and others booed.
Organizers said their actions were fueled largely by Pence’s stances against immigration and gay rights.
“The participation and degree-conferring of VP Pence stand as an endorsement of policies and actions which directly contradict Catholic social teachings and values and target vulnerable members of the University’s community,” Notre Dame student Xitlaly Estrada of WeStandforND said in a release.
Some students said they would protest Pence’s policies as Indiana governor, including the religious-objections bill he signed into law in 2015.
The group cited the vice president’s opposition to gay rights, his attempts as governor to stop Syrian refugees from entering the state, his backing of President Trump’s travel ban on immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries, and his opposition to sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce federal immigration laws.
WeStandforND tweeted out instructions: “Sit with a friend in your college. Stand up and walk out once Mike Pence starts to speak. Respectfully and quietly exit the stadium. Join us for a short commencement celebration. Share on social media. #WALKOUTND.”
Notre Dame spokesman Paul Browne told CNN the university would not attempt to stop the students from walking out, noting that organizers reached out to police and administrators ahead of time to plan the quiet proceedings.
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“We’re not concerned,” Browne said before the ceremony. “We think they will be respectful in the way they express their differences with the administration.”
Some students said they would protest Pence’s policies as Indiana governor, including the religious-objections bill Pence signed into law in 2015. Critics claimed it sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians.
This is not the first time Notre Dame has been at the center of a political storm.
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In 2009, conservatives protested President Obama’s speech because they disapproved of his support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. And President Reagan faced some antagonism when he spoke there in 1981 in his first speech after his attempted assassination.
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter declined comment on Sunday’s protests.
The vice president also gave the commencement address Saturday at Grove City College, near Pittsburgh, where he told graduates that “the most important job that I will ever hold is husband and father to three wonderful kids.”
Pence was not the only Trump administration figure to face protests at commencement this year. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was booed when she addressed graduates at Bethune Cookman University, a historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida, on May 10.
The article originally appeared in Religion News Service and has been updated.
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