AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts has announced that Gov. Charlie Baker will be the featured speaker at commencement this year.
Baker, a Republican who was re-elected to a second term in November, will address a crowd of as many as 20,000 people when he takes to the stage at McGuirk Alumni Stadium on Friday, May 10, at 4:30 p.m.
“He has been a tremendous supporter of our institution, and I sincerely look forward to hearing his message as we celebrate the class of 2019,” Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
The town’s two other colleges have also announced their own plans for commencement.
Last week, Hampshire College announced that this year’s graduates have selected Ericka Hart, an activist and a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, as the speaker for commencement, which will take place on Saturday, May 18. Hart’s work focuses on promoting honest conversations across race and gender in sexual health education.
At Amherst College, it is a decades-old tradition that the college president delivers the commencement address, together with a speech from a student. The school’s commencement will take place on Sunday, May 26 at 10 a.m.
The college also celebrates honorary degree recipients as part of commencement. This year’s recipients include: famed photographer Annie Leibovitz; Harvard neuroscientist David Corey; Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa; science writer Charles Mann; Massachusetts Institute of Technology astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala; journalist Cullen Murphy; and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker.
Amherst College will hold a series of conversations with the honorary guests on Saturday, May 25.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.