--- title: Notre Dame Students Protest Pence Commencement Speech description: Dozens of Notre Dame students walked out at the beginning of Vice President Mike Pence's commencement speech as part of a planned protest canonical: https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-21T17:52:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T07:51:18.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President's Commencement Speech og:description: More than 100 students left the ceremony og:url: https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe95471e2fe82c96/6988ce39a988ca493a6bc52a/notre-dame-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pence Notre Dame og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President's Commencement Speech twitter:description: More than 100 students left the ceremony twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe95471e2fe82c96/6988ce39a988ca493a6bc52a/notre-dame-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:51 AM UTCPublished: May 21, 2017 5:52 PM UTC  Notre Dame students walk out of the commencement ceremony in opposition opposed to the Trump administration's policies as Vice President Mike Pence is introduced at Notre Dame Stadium, on May 21, 2017, in South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame students walk out of the commencement ceremony in opposition opposed to the Trump administration's policies as Vice President Mike Pence is introduced at Notre Dame Stadium, on May 21, 2017, in South Bend, Ind.Santiago Flores—AP by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:51 AM UTCPublished: May 21, 2017 5:52 PM UTC As Vice President [Mike Pence](http://time.com/4787291/mike-pence-grove-city-college-commencement-graduation-speech/) began his remarks at [Notre Dame’s](http://time.com/money/4402114/notre-dame-money-financial-aid-best-colleges/) commencement ceremony Sunday, dozens of graduates [walked out](http://time.com/4787061/mike-pence-notre-dame-protest-walkout/) in protest of the Trump administration’s policies. More than 100 students participated in the planned protest, which was aimed at showing the student’s discontent with the Trump administration’s policies on LGBT rights and people of color, the student group We StaND For wrote in a [statement](https://twitter.com/WeStandForND/status/864502392750002177/photo/1?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref%5Furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wndu.com%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2F423131864.html) ahead of the ceremony. > [](https://twitter.com/SummerRatcliff/status/866315862722170883) Notre Dame, a predominately Catholic university, is located in South Bend, Ind. — the state where Pence served as governor prior to becoming vice president. “During his time as governor of the state of Indiana and now as Vice-President, Pence has targeted the civil rights protections of members of the LGBT community, rejected the Syrian refugee resettlement program, supported an unconstitutional ban of religious minorities, and fought against sanctuary cities,” the students wrote in a statement. “All of these policies have marginalized our vulnerable sisters and brothers for their religion, skin color, or sexual orientation.” > [](https://twitter.com/VP/status/866320652407627776) Before this year’s ceremony, more than 1,700 Notre Dame alums [signed a letter](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdOFdgYwff4rH%5FyNeGUGNS453hCZSrILRy7rZs5NuB0scF7Bw/closedform) condemning the university’s speaker selection. Notre Dame traditionally selects the new president for its commencement ceremony, but instead chose the vice president over [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4787527/donald-trump-saudi-arabia-speech-terrorism/) this year. Former President [Barack Obama](http://time.com/4782309/barack-obama-syria-2013-chemical-weapons/) gave Notre Dame’s commencement address in May 2009 — months after his first inauguration. But Obama’s selection also sparked backlash from students. Some conservative students criticized it because Obama was a pro-choice politician. Students opposing the former president participated in an alternative ceremony, [according to CBS News](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-the-obama-notre-dame-controversy/). The Notre Dame protest comes after Bethune-Cookman University students [booed, chanted and turned their backs](http://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/) on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during her commencement address at their ceremony earlier this month. Like Pence’s selection at Notre Dame, students at the historically black college criticized its administration’s pick of DeVos ahead of the ceremony. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/"},"headline":"Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech","datePublished":"2017-05-21T17:52:59.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T07:51:18.000Z","description":"The students were protesting Pence's and the Trump Administration's policies targeting the LGBTQ community and people of color","url":"https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/","keywords":["protests","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe95471e2fe82c96/6988ce39a988ca493a6bc52a/notre-dame-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe95471e2fe82c96/6988ce39a988ca493a6bc52a/notre-dame-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pence Notre Dame","caption":"Pence Notre Dame","creditText":"Santiago Flores—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/protests/","name":"protests"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/","name":"Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech"}}]}] ```