Soon after President Donald Trump announced that he would speak during the University of Alabama’s spring commencement week, reactions poured in, positive and negative.

Katie Bennett, a human nutrition grad student from Florida, told AL.com today that she’s cancelling her plans to attend graduation. Trump will speak May 1 at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, according to the university.

It will be the first time a president has spoken during the University of Alabama’s graduation events.

“I am ashamed of my university,” Bennett said. She’ll still fly home to see family, but won’t participate in other activities. She intended to meet with professors and advisers to celebrate, along with a tradition when visiting Tuscaloosa – eating at Jim and Nick’s BBQ.

Alumni were quick to weigh in as well.

“Trump’s commitment to take time out of leading the Free World to speak is testament to his priorities: Encouraging the next generation of leaders,” Brilyn Hollyhand, a graduate and conservative activist, posted on Instagram stories.

Unlike other colleges, the university doesn’t typically invite speakers to its graduation ceremony — at least in recent memory. In 2007, businessman James Stephens criticized the Iraq War and got booed. Subsequent events lacked a keynote speaker.

Virginia Lucci O’Donnell, a 2002 School of Law alumna, told AL.com she wrote to the college’s president protesting the Trump invite and said she will no longer contribute financially unless it’s cancelled “or the university takes accountability for what will inevitably be hate speech.”

“Having this speaker is akin to Wallace prohibiting Black students from having access to classrooms,” O’Donnell said. “Progress is learning from our mistakes. Hate, racism, and misogyny have no place on our beautiful campus. This is setting the University back 60 years.”

So far, the university has said only that the speech will be its own event, ticketed and open to spring 2025 graduates. More details are expected soon.

The commencement speech will be Trump’s eighth, according to the American Presidency Project. Only one other president has delivered a commencement speech in Alabama; Ronald Reagan spoke at Tuskegee University in 1987.

Others in the state, including Sen. Katie Britt, a college alumna, and Gov. Kay Ivey, an Auburn graduate, praised the visit.

“It truly will be a historic occasion for these UA graduates and their families,” Ivey said on X. “What an incredible opportunity to hear from the President of the United States! Thank you, @POTUS, for making this happen for our students.”

The UA College Democrats, who protested Trump’s last visit to Tuscaloosa at the Alabama-Georgia football game as a “political sideshow,” said in a statement on Facebook they are “shocked and disgusted” about this “disgraced criminal” attending.

“This insult will not go unanswered,” the College Dems said. “We cannot allow this to happen with our commencement ceremonies.”

Other student organizations did not reply to AL.com’s request for comment before publication.

This story may be updated.