The president of the University of Notre Dame has defended the school's decision to allow a drag show to take place on campus, according to The Federalist.
Last month, the school's independent Catholic student newspaper, The Irish Rover, reported that the Film, Television, and Theater Department will host a drag show on campus on Nov. 3, following the conclusion of a one-credit class called "What a Drag: Drag on Screen — Variations and Meanings."
Students concerned about the university's Catholic identity have begun an email petition as part of a campaign to persuade the school's administration to withdraw funding for the event.
The automated email template is sent to the university's administration and requests that the school's invitation "be rescinded [and that] the University offer an apology, especially to her women, for ever considering such a degrading portrayal of femininity, and direct its funds to events that support authentic femininity and the dignity of the human person."
According to The Federalist, those who have emailed are receiving an automated response from Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins, saying that the school is committed to its mission as a Catholic university but the event will be permitted on the grounds of "academic freedom" and "freedom of expression."
"We defend this freedom even when the content of the presentation is objectionable to some or even many," the president's statement read. "The event you reference is part of a one-credit course in Film, Television and Theater on the history of drag, and the principle of academic freedom applies."
In a statement on the school's general policy on freedom of expression, Jenkins said, "The right of free expression does not, of course, extend to speech that threatens violence or constitutes harassment against an individual or a group. Such expressions violate University policies and will not be tolerated."
The event, which will reportedly feature several drag performers, is being co-sponsored by the departments of Music and American Studies, the College of Arts, the Letters Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, and the Gender Studies Program, according to The Federalist.
On Oct. 11, The Rover's editor-in-chief, Nico Schmitz, wrote a column calling all "students, faculty, and staff who care about preserving Notre Dame as an authentically Catholic institution [to] make their voices heard on the matter."
He outlined the Catholic Church's position on matters of sexuality and hammered the university for allowing the event to be held.
"In supporting lies about the human person — lies that say men can be women and that a minstrel show of femininity is a legitimate art form — the university is not only actively working against her mission, but permitting irreparable damage to its community and image," Schmitz wrote.
More than 400 people have emailed opposition to the event, but the university has not addressed the controversy apart from the automated response. If the show is not canceled, students plan to hold a rosary rally outside the performance, according to The Federalist.