Notre Dame students got together Monday night at the LaFortune Student Center to support the school's commencement invitation to President Obama.
The Black Cultural Arts Council and the NAACP were among the groups signing a petition asking university officials not to rescind the invitation to the president.
Several notable officials, inlcuding Bishop John D'Arcy, have denounced the school's decision to have President Obama speak at graduation due to Obama's views on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
But Monday night, students said let the man speak.
"The United States had finally come together as a people, as a country," said Notre Dame senior Amber Travis. "And for this to happen, it's really saddening for not only me, but my classmates, for my schoolmates. It's saddening for a lot of us that it's even going on in the first place."
Travis says they hope to collect as many as two thousand signatures. They plan to deliver the petition to Notre Dame president Father John Jenkins by the end of the month.
