piece in the newspaper the prior year they received pushback from the student body. The university president Lowell Haines criticized the publications, citing the targeted distribution of the paper in rooms of minorities and supporters of social justice, along with the unaccountability and inability to create and maintain dialogue with anonymous publications. At this point the authors of the newspaper, Jim Spiegel, Gary Ross, Richard Smith, and Ben Wehling, came forward, apologized for any perceived slights due to distribution, and stated that their goal was to create dialogue about viewpoints they felt were under-represented Several open letters were published, with one addressing the newspapers arguments directly, and another criticizing what it saw as the president's harsh response. 2019 Commencement controversy On March 24, 2019, university president Paul Lowell Haines announced that Vice President Mike Pence would be delivering the commencement speech at the 2019 graduation ceremonies. Controversy was immediate, the faculty voting on a motion of dissent, with 61 against the Pence invitation, 41 in favor and 3 abstaining. Competing petitions were organized, calling for the invitation to be rescinded or supporting the invitation. Student and faculty organized protests to walk out before the commencement speech, or to sit silently during the speech. Students and faculty expressed several reasons for protesting: the lack of faculty and student input into the decision, concerns that Pence's invitation was an endorsement of specific political and religious views, Pence's affiliation with President Donald Trump, and the belief that Pence did not represent the same Christian values the university endorsed. On May 18, 2019, dozens of students and several faculty members walked out of commencement ceremonies shortly before Pence delivered the commencement address. The majority of students and faculty remained seated. At the end of his speech, Pence received a standing ovation, during which the majority of students and faculty that remained stayed silent and seated. Afterwards, students linked hands and sang the doxology in an attempt to show that even if they have different viewpoints, they can still respect and love each other. On June 24, university president Haines resigned, effective August 15, 2019. Academics There are 100 undergraduate programs, in 61 majors, with popular focuses including education, business, new media and exercise science. In 2003, Taylor began offering graduate-level programs again after having dropped such degrees nearly 60 years earlier. Since then, the university has expanded its offerings to include a Master of