Notre Dame Students Walk Out of Mike Pence Commencement Address -
By LIAM STACKMAY 21, 2017
A large crowd of students walked out of the Notre Dame commencement ceremony on Sunday in protest of the speaker, Vice President Mike Pence, who delivered a speech
that mixed platitudes about bright, dream-filled futures with a lengthy rebuke of political correctness on college campuses.
Luis Miranda, 29, a protester who graduated from a master’s program at Notre Dame, said the students who walked out objected to Mr. Pence’s role in the Trump administration as well as his record as an Indiana congressman
and governor, when he opposed admitting Syrian refugees and rights for unauthorized immigrants and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
It’s a celebration of all of our hard work.”
Mr. Miranda added that Mr. Pence’s role in graduation was particularly unsavory for some students
and their families — including gay people and immigrants — who might have been hurt by the policies favored by the Trump administration.
As several dozen students in caps and gowns quietly exited the graduation ceremony, the vice president praised Notre Dame, one of the nation’s most prominent Catholic universities, as “a vanguard of freedom of expression
and the free exchange of ideas.” Other schools do not measure up, he said.
