MEDIA ADVISORY: Washington University Commencement is 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 17

WHAT: Washington University’s 158th Commencement. The university will award 3,305 degrees to 3,162 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The university also will bestow honorary degrees on seven individuals.

WHO: Michael R. Bloomberg, 108th mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, will give the 2019 Commencement address. During the ceremony, Bloomberg will receive an honorary doctor of laws.

The university’s other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are:

Carol B. Bauer, a longtime Washington University benefactor, steadfast volunteer, chaplain and former teacher, doctor of humane letters;
George P. Bauer, a dedicated alumnus and emeritus trustee of Washington University, philanthropist, financier and head of GPB Group Ltd., doctor of humane letters;
Theresa A. Carrington, founder of the Blessing Basket Project, now known as Ten by Three, who discovered a formula that sustainably ends poverty and has been successfully replicated in eight developing nations, doctor of humanities;
Wayne Fields, the Lynne Cooper Harvey Chair Emeritus in English and professor of English at Washington University, renowned author and expert on American presidential rhetoric, doctor of humane letters;
Joseph E. Madison, a dedicated Arts & Sciences alumnus, groundbreaking radio personality and human and civil rights activist, doctor of laws; and
Charles M. Rice III, the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Chair in Virology at The Rockefeller University, who developed a lifesaving therapy for hepatitis C virus infection, doctor of science.

This will be the last Commencement ceremony that Mark S. Wrighton will preside over as chancellor. His tenure as chancellor concludes May 31 after 24 years at the helm. Andrew D. Martin, a Washington University alumnus and former dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan, assumes the role of chancellor June 1.

WHERE: Brookings Quadrangle, which is directly west of Brookings Hall, the university’s main administration building.

Interview some graduates

Among our St. Louis-area graduates are a community activist, business owner and mother from Ferguson who returned to college to improve her skills as a communicator and filmmaker; a father of four who never considered a career in emergency medicine until his brother died by suicide after struggling with depression and addiction to meth and opioids; and a veteran who served in Baghdad who plans to help fellow veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health disorders.

To learn more about these degree candidates and others, visit The Source.

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 17, 2019

MEDIA RESERVED SEATING: News organizations sending a reporter to Commencement should call Sue Killenberg McGinn by 5 p.m. Thursday, May 16, to make arrangements for a reserved seat in the Quad. Mult boxes will be available at the seats and near the Beaumont Pavilion stage. The reserved media seats are in the chancellor’s section, which is at the north end of the Quad on the east side of Beaumont Pavilion.

MEDIA PARKING: Parking will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in the new underground garage on the east end of campus. Enter from either Forsyth Boulevard at Wrighton Way or Forest Park Parkway at Hoyt Drive.

LIVE TV BROADCASTS: TV stations that plan to shoot live from Brookings Quad should make arrangements with Liam Otten. Please call 314-935-8494 (office) on May 16 or 314-874-6331 (cell) on May 17.

For more information the morning of Commencement, call Sue Killenberg McGinn at 314-603-6008.

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