Notre Dame Graduates?

This past weekend, I like many other college undergrads, had the opportunity to volunteer at their school’s graduation. It was a beautiful ceremony that ran with no hiccups. However, at my schools more well-known sister school Notre Dame, this was not the case. As Vice President Pence stood up on the stage and delivered the commencement address, more than 100 of the graduating seniors stood up and walked out of the ceremony. This walk out organized by on campus group We StaND For was in response to policies he pursued as Governor that targeted the most vulnerable.

Although the school knew about the protest beforehand, they allowed it to happen citing various protests which have occurred on the college campus in the past. This has been one of many protests which have occurred in the months since President Trump was elected, but as a college student who is in the minority as a conservative I am extremely disappointed, but this is nothing new.

The coddling of students who opposed the election of the current administration has gone on for long enough. When the safe spaces were created after the election I knew that the months to follow would be very turbulent. Notre Dame has a tradition to invite the President to give the commencement speech at their school in the first graduation since his election, and VP Pence was asked since the school received a petition to not invite Trump. Although I believe that this was a slight overreaction, I respect the school trying to appease the student body. But, with this blatant disregard for the Vice President, someone needs to put their foot down and make a change.

I understand that people are very upset with President Trump, but that does not give them the right to act however they choose. Even myself, a declared Republican, am not satisfied with how the election turned out. I am still baffled by how, out of a field of 16 very respectable politicians, he won the nomination and then the presidential election, but the point is: it happened. At this point, no amount of protest will remove the current administration from power.

If anything, this most recent protest has proven that these students are not ready for the work force. In the real world, very few are fortunate enough to pick who they work with, and odds are there will be at least one person in every office setting that one does not get along with. Just because you do not get along with them though does not mean you can simply walk away when they are speaking with you. If you do that to your boss, then you will be fired. If you do that to a coworker there could be other serious repercussions as well.

This is where colleges are failing their liberal students, they are learning in an environment where they are always right, and no one ever questions their position. In my experience with the variety of liberal classmates, there are those who will listen to my side of the argument and be able to have a very intelligent discussion on the issue at hand, but there is a majority who refuse to listen to my side of the argument and try to put off the discussion as a whole for fear of either being wrong, or because they do not want to enter an argument that they think they would clearly win.

Not only can they not handle people with opposing views, but when they have to deal with a situation (i.e. the election) they are treated as kids and not young adults. Finals were made easier, moved, and even canceled

Notre Dame School Crest. Featured Image via Wikipedia.

after the news broke, and students could go to ‘safe spaces’ if they felt personally attacked by the results, but again this is not how the real world works. When something does not go your way in the workforce you cannot stop being productive. One must bear the burden and continue moving forward.

Those who walked out in the middle of Vice President Pence’s speech should be embarrassed. Although I do respect one’s right to protest given by the Bill of Rights, I believe that the protests in response to the election of the current administration are getting ridiculous. It has been 122 days since Donald Trump was officially sworn in as president, and Mike Pence as Vice President. It is time to accept that these two will be our president and vice president, and it is time to start working with them to make this nation great again.