The possibility of Donald Trump delivering the keynote at the University of Notre Dame‘s next commencement was barely mentioned before there was a petition to stop it.
Hundreds of Notre Dame employees, students and alumni have signed a petition pushing the university to not invite the President-elect to campus, according to the South Bend Tribune.
The petition was created by the Notre Dame College Democrats and had around 1,800 signatures as of Thursday evening.
Notre Dame’s president the Reverend John Jenkins said last week that he is weighing the options for the commencement address.
Trump would be the first President since George W. Bush to not deliver the commencement address during his first year in office. Bush, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter each gave commencement addresses during their first year in the Oval Office. George H.W. Bush and Dwight Eisenhower also delivered commencement addresses at Notre Dame.
95.3 MNC’s Tom Franklin contributed to this story.