The University of Notre Dame's annual commencement exercises are held each May, currently in the Notre Dame Stadium. The exercises award undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Traditions During commencement, the Laetare Medal is awarded.
Notre Dame is known for inviting US presidents to deliver the commencement address, especially in the year of their inauguration. Seven U.S. presidents have delivered the address, including John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Most recently, Vice President Mike Pence spoke instead of President Donald Trump, as the president was visiting Saudi Arabia. Other than the United States service academies, Notre Dame has had the most Presidents of the United States delivering the address at commencement. Joe Biden, who had previously spoken at commencement in 2016, as the awardee of the Laetare Medal, was invited in 2021, but could not attend due to scheduling issues.
List of Commencement speakers 1861: John McMullen, priest and teacher from Chicago 1865: William Tecumseh Sherman, Union General during the Civil War 1867: T.E. Corcoran, editor of The Catholic Telegraph 1870: Paul Broder, professor from Beloit College, Wisconsin 1871: Augustus C. Dodge, U.S. Senator from Iowa 1872: Joseph Dwenger, Bishop of Fort Wayne, Indiana 1873: John J. Fitzgibbon, editor of The Western Catholic 1874: S. S. Hayes, Comptroller from City of Chicago 1875: J. S. Morris, from Vicksburg, Mississippi 1876: William J. Onahan, Chicago Catholic activist and businessman 1877: Frank H. Hurd, U.S. Congressman from Ohio 1878: John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, Illinois 1879: No commencement exercises due to the great fire 1880: Edmund Francis Dunne, Chief Justice of Arizona 1881: W. W. Cleary, from Covington, Kentucky 1882: Silas Chatard, Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana 1883: John Ambrose Watterson, Bishop of Columbus, Ohio 1884: Ignacio Montes de Oca y Obregón, Bishop of Linares, Mexico 1885: The scheduled speaker Major General William S. Rosecrans canceled his commitment due to duties in Washington, D.C. 1886: John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, [Illinois 1887: Richard Gilmour, Bishop of Cleveland 1888: P. F. Carr, from Denver, Colorado 1889: William P. Breen, Alumnus from Fort Wayne, Indiana 1890: John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, Illinois 1891: John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, Illinois 1892: John Samuel Foley, Bishop of Detroit, Michigan 1893: Robert Seton, priest from the Diocese of Newark, N.J. 1894: John Ambrose Watterson, Bishop of Columbus, Ohio 1895: John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, Illinois 1896: Thomas A. Moran, judge from Chicago 1897: Joseph F. Mooney, priest from the Archdiocese of New York 1898: Maurice Francis Burke, Bishop of St. Joseph, Missouri 1899: John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, Illinois 1900: John J. Glennon, Bishop of Kansas City, Missouri 1901: John Shanley, Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota 1902: William P. Breen A.B. ’77, A.M. ’80 from Fort Wayne, Indiana 1903: John M. Gearin, attorney from Portland, Oregon 1904: Charles Joseph Bonaparte, attorney, progressive reformer, member of the Board of Indian Commissioners 1905: Marcus A. Kavanagh, judge from Chicago 1906: D. J. Stafford, priest and lecturer from Washington, D.C. 1907: John Talbot Smith, priest, author, lecturer from New York City 1908: Charles P. Neill, U.S. Commissioner of Labor 1909: Hannis Taylor, United States Ambassador to Spain, authority on international law 1910: Thomas R. Marshall, Governor of Indiana 1911: Charles Fitzpatrick, Chief Justice of Canada 1912: Thomas Francis Hickey, Bishop of Rochester, New York 1913: James M. Cox, Governor of Ohio 1914: Joseph E. Ransdell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana 1915: John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston and U.S. Representative 1916: Martin J. Wade, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa and Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa 1917: Joseph Chartrand, Coadjutor, Bishop of Indianapolis 1918: Edward N. Hurley, Chairman of the United States Shipping Board 1919: Francis Bickerstaffe-Drew, English war chaplain and novelist 1920: Morgan J. O'Brien, Judge of the New York Supreme Court 1921: David I. Walsh, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts 1922: Kickham Scanlan, Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, Chicago 1923: Thomas Lindsey Blayney, diplomat, veteran of the world war, educator from Rice University, Huston 1924: Woodbridge N. Ferris, U.S. Senator from Michigan 1925: Edmond H. Moore, Democratic National Committee member and attorney from Youngstown, Ohio 1926: Dudley G. Wooten, former U.S. Representative from Texas and Professor of Law at the Notre Dame Law School 1927: Alfred J. Talley, judge on the circuit court of appeals of New York City 1928: Francis O'Shaughnessy, attorney, Chicago 1929: Colonel William J. Donovan, former United States Assistant Attorney General and war hero from Buffalo, New York 1930: Claude G. Bowers, author, editor, orator 1931: Angus Daniel McDonald, Treasurer of the United States Railroad Commission 1932: Owen D. Young, New York City financier 1933: Paul V. McNutt, Governor of Indiana 1934: Frank C. Walker, Chairman of the National Emergency Council 1935: Shane Leslie, essayist, dramatist, lecturer 1936: William James Mayo, cofounder of Mayo Clinic 1937: Dennis F. Kelly, president of The Fair Store, a Chicago department store 1938: Terence Byrne Cosgrove, attorney from San Francisco 1939: William Henry Harrison, Vice-President and Chief Engineer of AT&T 1940: D. Worth Clark, U.S. Senator from Idaho 1941: Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1942: J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI 1942-Winter: William F. Jeffers 1943: Arthur J. Hope, author and editor 1943-Winter: Harry Kelly, former Governor of Michigan 1944: Thomas J. Brennan, Notre Dame professor of philosophy 1945: Phillip S. Moore, dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School 1946: George Sokolsky, columnist 1947: General George Kenney, Chief of the Strategic Air Command 1948: Paul G. Hoffman, Director of Economic Cooperation Administration, Washington, D.C. 1949: John Stephen Burke, President of B. Altman and Company, New York City 1950-Winter: John F. Kennedy, U.S. Congressman (and later President of the United States of America) 1950: John Hearne, ambassador of Ireland to the U.S. 1951: Francis P. Matthews, Secretary of the Navy 1952: Charles Malik, Minister of Lebanon to the U.S. 1953: Detlev Bronk, president of the Johns Hopkins University 1954: James Rhyne Killian, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1955: Herbert Brownell Jr., Attorney General of the United States 1956: Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy 1957: Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court 1958: James P. Mitchell, Secretary of Labor 1959: John A. McCone, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission 1960: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States 1961: Sargent Shriver, Director of the Peace Corps 1962: Henry Cabot Lodge, US Ambassador to the United Nations 1963: Lester B. Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada 1964: Thomas C. Mann, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs 1965: McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs 1966: Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, economist, London, England 1967: Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Minnesota 1968: James Alfred Perkins, president of Cornell University 1969: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs 1970: James E. Allen Jr., U.S. Commissioner of Education 1971: Kenneth Keniston, Yale Medical School 1972: Kingman Brewster Jr., president of Yale University 1973: Malcolm Moos, president of the University of Minnesota 1974: Rosemary Park, professor of education, UCLA 1975: Alan J. Pifer, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 1976: Vernon Jordan, Executive Director of the National Urban League 1977: Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States 1978: William F. Buckley Jr., editor of The National Review 1979: Joseph A. Califano Jr., Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare 1980: Benjamin Civiletti, Attorney General of the United States 1981: Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States 1982: Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada 1983: Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago 1984: Loret Miller Ruppe, Director of the Peace Corps 1985: José Napoleón Duarte, President of El Salvador 1986: Bishop James William Malone, Bishop of Youngstown and president of the United States Catholic Conference 1987: Derek Bok, president of Harvard University 1988: Andrew Young, Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia 1989: Peter Ueberroth, Commissioner of Major League Baseball 1990: Bill Cosby, actor and producer 1991: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, editor of Commonweal 1992: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States 1993: Tom Brokaw, NBC news anchor 1994: Albert Reynolds, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland 1995: Condoleezza Rice, Provost of Stanford University (later U.S. Secretary of State) 1996: Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand professor of law, Harvard University 1997: Mark Shields, political Commentator and columnist 1998: Joe Kernan, Indiana Lieutenant Governor 1999: Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross 2000: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997–2006) 2001: George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States (2001–2009) 2002: Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press 2003: Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator from Indiana (1977–2013) 2004: Alan Page, Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and former Notre Dame and National Football League football player 2005: Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York 2006: Mary McAleese, President of Ireland (1997–2011) 2007: Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric 2008: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C. 2009: Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States (2009–2017) 2010: Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nightly News 2011: Robert Gates, United States Secretary of Defense (2006–2011) 2012: Haley Scott DeMaria, alumna and motivational speaker injured in a tragic 1992 bus accident involving the Notre Dame swimming team 2013: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 2014: Ray Hammond II, Founder of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church 2015: Chris Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford (2003–present) 2016: General Martin Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2011–2015) 2017: Mike Pence, 48th Vice President of the United States (2017–2021) and former Governor of Indiana (2013–2017) 2018: Sergio Moro, Brazilian judge, a leader in his country's anti-corruption movement 2019: Peggy Noonan, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal, speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan 2020: Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Orthodox Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Commencement Celebration was held in 2022 and the speaker was John Crowley, CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization). 2021: Jimmy Dunne, Vice Chairman and Senior Managing Principal of Piper Sandler Companies. 2022: Borys Gudziak, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and President of Ukrainian Catholic University 2023: Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia (2010–2018) and recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize 2024: John I. Jenkins, 17th President of the University of Notre Dame (2005–2024) 2025: Christopher W. Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2021–2025)