This May, America once again witnessed the dignity and pride of college students.

The University of Notre Dame’s decision to allow Mike Pence to make the commencement address was met with dissent from the graduating students, a number of whom filed out silently as the speech began. One of the graduates walked out wrapped in the LGBT flag, its colors visible from the crowd.

Betsy DeVos was also invited to speak at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college, despite petitions from students. She was greeted with a chorus of booing from the graduates as she took to the podium. The president of the college had told the booing crowd that if the behavior continued, they would be mailed their diplomas instead, but the dissent continued.

These two graduating classes made the important decision between traditionalism and morality. Even after four years of difficult classes and growing debt, students decided there was something more important than a peaceful graduation ceremony, something more important than receiving their diplomas on the spot. In the current state of the nation, it has become more important to resist than it is to be polite.

This is one of the greatest things about college students. We aren’t constantly told to shut up and sit down anymore, and we’re not quite tired enough to bow our heads, ignore political discourse, and focus on paying out our mortgages. We’re educated and still passionate and have just the right amount of fire in our veins to actually protest and fight against the things that threaten our beliefs and well-being. We’ve been on the front lines of dissent since the '60s when college campuses protested the Vietnam War. We’ve always been the first to respond politically because what happens in our government affects our future directly.

This is not the time to be silent. This is not the time to sit benignly and listen to a man who supports conversion therapy just because you want a nice and quiet graduation. This is not the time to take the insult of a woman who seeks to take away your right to education, just because you don’t want to seem rude by sounding the displeasure that your administration has ignored.

It’s our right to stand up against authority when we know that authority is messing up; no one knows that better than college students.