The University of Notre Dame will confer 3,147 degrees during Commencement Weekend Saturday and Sunday (May 18 and 19) on campus.
Degrees will be conferred on 2,025 undergraduate students at Notre Dame’s 174th University Commencement Ceremony on Sunday. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal, speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and author of five New York Times best-sellers Peggy Noonan will be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary degree. Norman C. Francis, civil rights leader and longtime president of Xavier University in Louisiana, will receive the 2019 Laetare (lay-TAH-ray) Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics.
Sofia Carozza, a neuroscience and behavior major with a supplemental major in theology from South Bend, Indiana, will deliver the valedictory address. Salutatorian Annelise Gill-Wiehl, an environmental engineering major from St. Louis, Missouri, will deliver the invocation.
In addition to Noonan, five others will receive honorary degrees. They are Carol Corrigan, associate justice of the California Supreme Court; James Poterba, the Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ignacio Sánchez, longtime faculty member in the School of Medicine and president of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Esther Takeuchi, distinguished professor in the departments of materials science and chemical engineering, and chemistry at Stony Brook University; and John Affleck-Graves, executive vice president and former chair of the department of finance who is retiring from his administration role on June 30.
On Saturday, 513 students will receive master’s and doctoral degrees at the Graduate School Commencement Ceremony, along with 387 master’s degree students at the Mendoza College of Business Ceremony and 222 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 Business 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.
- Commencement Mass, 5 p.m. Saturday, Purcell Pavilion, Joyce Center.
- The undergraduate college and department diploma ceremonies beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday throughout campus.
A complete schedule of events is available from the Commencement website.
The academic processional will begin at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. All attendees must have a ticket for admission. Guests can enter the stadium beginning at 8 a.m. through Gate A on the northeast side and Gate B on the southeast side.
Many common items will be prohibited from entering the stadium during Commencement. For a complete list of prohibited items, visit the Commencement website.
Contact: Sue Ryan, director of media relations, 574-631-7916, sue.ryan@nd.edu
Originally published by at news.nd.edu on May 13, 2019.