--- 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a9ace0b9-0b01-4cd3-a8dc-8f37da8e9951&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech [Watch (HLS stream): Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zC1sfril.m3u8) (1:01)  _Published 2017-05-21. As Vice President Mike Pence began his remarks at Notre Dame's commencement ceremony Sunday, dozens of graduates walked out in protest of the Trump administration's policies._ 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 began his remarks at Notre Dame's commencement ceremony Sunday, dozens of graduates walked out in protest of the Trump administration's policies. 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. ## Transcript [00:53] [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] ```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":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Vice President Mike Pence's Commencement Speech","description":"As Vice President Mike Pence began his remarks at Notre Dame's commencement ceremony Sunday, dozens of graduates walked out in protest of the Trump administration's policies.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zC1sfril/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-21T19:38:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zC1sfril.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4787547/mike-pence-notre-dame-student-protest-commencement/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```