The University of Notre Dame will confer 3,080 degrees during Commencement Weekend May 16 and 17 (Saturday and Sunday) on campus. (View a live stream here: commencement.nd.edu/live-webcast/.)
Degrees will be conferred on 1,990 undergraduates at Notre Dame’s 170th University Commencement Ceremony on Sunday. Christopher Patten, chancellor of the University of Oxford, will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary degree. Grammy Award-winning singer and musician Aaron Neville will receive the 2015 Laetare Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics.
Anna Kottkamp, an environmental science major from Wenatchee, Washington, will deliver the valedictory address.
In addition to Patten, other honorary degree recipients are Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; John E. Kelly III, senior vice president, solutions portfolio and research for IBM; Jane McAuliffe, a scholar of the Quran and early Islamic history, and director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress; Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, professor of neurosurgery and oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and director of its brain tumor surgery program; Shirley Welsh Ryan, Notre Dame Trustee emerita and co-founder of Pathways.org; and Rev. Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P., rector emeritus of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute.
On Saturday, an additional 417 students will receive master’s and doctoral degrees at the Graduate School Commencement Ceremony, along with 450 master’s degree students at the Mendoza College of Business Ceremony and 204 at the Law School Ceremony.
Some notable Commencement weekend events are:
- The ROTC Commissioning Ceremony, 9 a.m. Saturday, Leighton Concert Hall, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
- The Graduate School Commencement Ceremony, 10 a.m. Saturday, Compton Family Ice Arena.
- The Mendoza College of Business Graduate Ceremony, 10 a.m. Saturday, Purcell Pavilion, Joyce Center.
- The Law School Ceremony, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Hesburgh Library Reflecting Pool.
- The Service Send-Off Ceremony, 1 p.m. Saturday, Leighton Concert Hall, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
- The Commencement Mass, 5 p.m. Saturday, Purcell Pavilion, Joyce Center.
- The University Commencement Ceremony, 9 a.m. Sunday, Notre Dame Stadium.
- The undergraduate college and department diploma ceremonies beginning approximately 1 p.m. Sunday.
A complete schedule of events is available from the Commencement website.
Contact: Sue Lister, 574-631-7916, sue.lister@nd.edu