The action taken by Notre Dame students demonstrates they have several more years of growing up to do…and sadly these are the professionals of tomorrow…
As promised, several students from Notre Dame’s graduating class of 2017 walked out of Vice President Mike Pence’s commencement speech. As the Vice President took the podium, one student in the front row stood and turned her back to the podium. Prior to this and before he even began speaking, dozens of students stormed out—clearly in an advanced state of being enraged by his presence.
The students had planned the protest – of their own graduation ceremony – ahead of the commencement after receiving the news that VP Pence would be addressing the graduating class. Many students found this move to be detrimental to their health and safety – claiming that they didn’t feel safe with VP Pence on campus, and proceeded to rally against the Vice President. According to those students, the Vice President’s policies made him unfit to speak at Notre Dame.
Which leads me to pose the question: Do they not realize this man is Vice President of the entire United States? It should be considered a great privilege to have someone of such influence at a ceremony. Furthermore, it remains unclear to me how individuals would want to sabotage their own ceremony by walking out. I’ve sat through several lectures and briefs given throughout the course of my work experience by people I didn’t agree with. It had not once dawned on me that walking out would serve me well.
The fact is, part of being an adult is approaching situations with the knowledge that we are all different. The action taken by these students demonstrates they have several more years of growing up to do. What’s even more disturbing is that these are the professionals of tomorrow. Even politicians from opposite political parties must work together.
This latest temper tantrum, which was an incredibly embarrassing moment for Notre Dame and the United States as a whole, didn’t faze the Vice President whatsoever, who went on to deliver a great speech. Contrary to the claims and expectations of those who opposed the Vice President, the address didn’t call for hate crimes or gay bashing.
These entitled young college students are so used to throwing tantrums and getting their way, especially when it comes to speakers they don’t agree with. Remarkably, this instance wasn’t even at a political event nor should it have been a cause for controversy. Rather then sit patiently like professionals until the conclusion, students decided to demonstrate intolerance toward the Vice President.
Should this intolerant behavior continue, they have a long life of boycotting ahead. Condemning people based on their beliefs the way these graduates have goes against everything they themselves claimed to be protesting against. While not everyone has to agree with VP Pence’s politics, everyone can agree that he is a successful professional who is more than qualified to deliver a commencement address at Notre Dame. I would even venture to say that these students displayed weakness by allowing another person to trigger them to the point of leaving their own ceremony. Grown ups tend to look past hurt feelings and childish tantrums when dealing with situations on a professional level. Luckily, there was a significant number of grown folks in Notre Dame’s graduating class of 2017 who were able to demonstrate to their peers how to effectively act like an adult.
