The Board of Trustees requested that outgoing president, Fr. John Jenkins, deliver this year’s commencement address. He agreed to speak at the University’s 179th Commencement Ceremony in late May, board chair Jack Brennan wrote in an email to the Notre Dame community Tuesday.
“While Notre Dame typically selects a distinguished speaker external to the University, we believe at this moment Father Jenkins’s leadership and exemplary service to the University make him a most fitting choice, as we recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the Class of 2024 and our distinguished faculty,” Brennan wrote.
Jenkins announced in October that he would step down as president at the end of the current academic year after nearly two decades. He will return to teaching and writing at the University.
In a Tuesday news release, the University recognized Jenkins for leading Notre Dame to become the country’s foremost Catholic research institution.
“He has brought renewed emphasis to Notre Dame’s distinctive mission, rooted in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University’s founding community, to educate the whole person — mind, body and spirit — to do good in the world,” the news release said.
This year’s University Commencement Ceremony is scheduled for May 19 at 9 a.m. It can be livestreamed on the ceremony’s webpage.
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