Students at the University of Notre Dame have announced that university president Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C. is refusing to meet with them regarding Notre Dame’s plan to honor and provide a commencement platform to pro-abortion President Barack Obama on May 17.

“Father Jenkins has insisted that his honor for President Obama is all about ‘dialogue’—even though a commencement ceremony offers no opportunity for debate or discussion—yet now rejects dialogue with the students who profoundly disagree with honoring a pro-abortion politician,” said Patrick J. Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The students’ preconditions are reasonable and should not have prevented discussion.”

The leaders of ND Response, a broad coalition of Notre Dame student groups founded to express the “deepest opposition” to the invitation to President Obama to speak at commencement, informed The Cardinal Newman Society that they wrote a letter to Father Jenkins confirming their interest in discussing concerns with him. The students expressed hesitancy at accepting the limited closed-door meeting which was at first suggested by Father Jenkins. They instead proposed to allow all student members of ND Response to attend.

According to ND Response, the group also requested that, before meeting, the University publicly declare that it will never engage in or collaborate with research involving human embryos or fetal tissue obtained through destructive techniques. Another precondition was that the University appoint a “pro-life ombudsman” to ensure that proper attention is paid to life issues in both Notre Dame’s teaching and research.

“These requests,” ND Response spokeswoman Mary Daly said, “were intended to lead the University into making gestures of goodwill that would facilitate our productive discussion and demonstrate President Jenkins’ genuine interest in transparent dialogue.”

ND Response is now reporting that Father Jenkins sent a private letter to the 12 campus groups comprising ND Response in which he denied the students’ requests for dialogue on the issues surrounding the University’s invitation to President Obama.

In the letter Father Jenkins wrote that “conditions for constructive dialogue simply do not exist” and that students could disregard his earlier invitations to meet with him.

The protest against Notre Dame’s slated honor to President Obama has now surpassed 272,000 supporters.