Graduates received their diplomas in an unusual location Saturday. Commencement ceremonies were held at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, due to the construction of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex. The undergraduate ceremony started at 2 p.m. and featured the Rev. Marvin O’Connell, University of Notre Dame emeritus faculty, and Tommie Award recipient Steven Broszko.

Michael Ewen can be reached at mtewen@stthomas.edu.

Students are hanging shirts and jeans on clotheslines this week in the Lower Quad, but they’re not doing laundry.

The display is part of a nationwide project to help build awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault directed toward women. Students are encouraged to make their own designs on shirts with various colors, each of which represents a different type of gender-based violence.

The clothesline project was started in the 1990s in Massachusetts.

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

St. Thomas’ Knights of Columbus have a tradition of praying in front of Planned Parenthood every Friday.

The group meets at 3:15 p.m. in the lobby of St. John Vianney Seminary and then car pools to the business on Ford Parkway in Highland Park.

Junior Sean Grismer said the group consists mostly of seminarians, but it welcomes everybody and has seen an increase in non-seminarians so far this school year.

While praying outside the business, Grismer said the group never goes unnoticed.

“When cars drive by, some will honk their horn to either show support, or to show that they’re against us,” Grismer said. “The ones who hold down their horn, it’s usually anger, but if they only beep their horn a couple of times, usually you can tell they’re supporting us.”

Kathi Di Nicola, Planned Parenthood’s director of media relations, said the group of St. Thomas students is very peaceful and respectful, but still puts a lot of pressure on patients.

“It’s hard on our patients who are seeking reproductive health care to have to run the gauntlet of protesters,” Di Nicola said. “It can add another layer of stress on a visit that’s already emotionally charged.”

Grismer said more intense protestors picket in front of Planned Parenthood on Saturdays when it performs abortions. But he said the group of St. Thomas students expresses their concern in a different way.

“Our world is filled with so much noise as it is,” Grismer said. “We’re trying to show them that we’re not angry with them, that we love them and there are other ways even in the hardest times.”

Michael Ewen can be reached at mtewen@stthomas.edu.