#RESIST: Notre Dame Students Plan To Walk Out on Mike Pence’s Commencement Speech

I know it’s hard to find faith in our future given our current political climate but look toward the bright young minds across the country who are standing up to members of Trump’s administration. Last week, I wrote about the students of Bethune-Cookman University who turned their back to Betsy “I Just Want All The Poor, Non-Trustfund Kids to Suffer” DeVos in protest to her rich-people-first-what-is-a-poor-person politics. (Note: She’s currently working to scrap an important student loan program that lowered interest rates and forgave debt for civil servants after a period of time. In leyman terms, she’s trying to make it extra difficult for students to pay back those loans.)

Now, students from Notre Dame are planning their own protest for scheduled commencement speaker, Mike Pence. According to the Daily Dot, the newly elected president traditionally makes the speech but the university opted for Pence after thousands signed a petition asking them not to invite Trump. But now that the VP is headed to their campus, they plan to quietly walk out in the middle of his speech.

“We also will walk out in dignity and solidarity with all marginalized people affected by Pence’s politics, both on this campus and throughout our nation,” We StaND For, a human rights advocacy group comprised of local students, wrote in a Facebook post.

They will then gather outside for a “celebration and tassel turn.” As long as they’re not disruptive, university officials do not plan to stop them. Not gonna lie, things like this gives me hope for the future. Keep resisting in any way that you can!

(via The Daily Dot, image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

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Keisha Hatchett

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