Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame.
But that’s not sitting well with some of the students, Campus Reform reports.
Students Immane Mondane and Jourdyhn Williams are agitating to cancel that invitation with a #NotMyCommencementSpeaker hashtag that will feature students holding white boards with “direct quotes from Pence that are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, offensive, or ostracizing to members of our community.”
Campus Reform reports that the students add, “You may also write about why you feel unsafe with the presence of Mike Pence on our campus.”
With all the white boards collected, the organizers plan to share them on social media and start a “discussion” about Pence’s invitation.
“For me personally, [Pence] represents the larger Trump administration,” Mondane said. “His administration represents something, and for many people on our campus, it makes them feel unsafe to have someone who openly is offensive but also demeaning of their humanity and of their life and of their identity.”
So just what make a students feel unsafe with Pence being on campus? One whiteboard reveals the awful truth, quoting the vice president as supporting traditional marriage, “Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal status with heterosexual marriage.”
The organizer say they hope their initiative will start a campaign that will go beyond the “white, conservative Catholic” Notre Dame university that they attend.
“I feel that is offensive to such a large population here at Notre Dame, and I also believe it goes against certain Catholic Social Teaching, which is something the University likes to broadcast that it stands behind, but it picks and chooses when it wants to stand behind them,” Williams stated.
The anti-Pence campaign is just another insult to the Trump administration. The legendary Catholic university has historically invited the president of the United States in his first term of office. This year, apparently fearing student protest, the university invited Pence instead.
But the university’s efforts to pre-empt protest have proved unsuccessful. Besides the social media demonstration, other student groups are opposing the Pence invitation, including the Diversity Council and the College Democrats.