South Bend, Ind., May 15, 2009 / 14:00 pm
For most college seniors, the final weeks leading up to their commencement are filled with light-hearted fun, sentimental good-byes and the rush to finalize plans for the next chapter of their lives. The graduating seniors of the University of Notre Dame have experienced these and so much more as their college careers have drawn to a close. As one senior explained, “Things definitely have been much more different that I would ever have expected it to be.”
On March 20, 2009, the University of Notre Dame announced that President Barack H. Obama would be the principle speaker at the school’s 164th commencement ceremony and would receive an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree on the occasion. In the ensuing weeks, the school’s campus has become an epicenter of political, religious, and social debate and uproar. Though commencement lies at the core of the current controversy, those whom the commencement should celebrate—the graduates—have been largely overlooked in midst of the present storm.
“Regardless of what the administration or anyone says, commencement ceased to be about the graduates the moment that [President Obama] was invited to speak,” said Emily Toates, a senior mechanical engineering major who does not support the University’s invitation to the President. “Whether he wants to be or not, and despite the fact that he is president, Mr. Obama is a controversial, divisive figure.”
For many, what makes President Obama a “controversial, divisive figure” are his views on life issues, namely abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and his legislative and political record of voting for pro-choice action items and voting against many pro-life ones. Such actions are seen as being in direct opposition to the Catholic Church’s fundamental moral principles regarding the dignity of all human life.