Speakers and details have been announced for the four University of St. Thomas commencement exercises.
A website devoted to spring graduation can be found here. More than 2,200 graduate and undergraduate students will participate in the ceremonies.
Tim Marx
The first ceremony, for School of Law graduates, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at Orchestra Hall. Speaking will be Tim Marx, who last year was named CEO of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Marx previously had served as Minnesota housing commissioner, deputy mayor and city attorney for the city of St. Paul, and executive director of Common Ground, a social services agency in New York City.
Dr. Antoine Garibaldi
The ceremony for nonbusiness graduate students will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 19, in the field house of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex. Speaking will be Dr. Antoine Garibaldi, president of University Detroit Mercy and a member of St. Thomas’ Board of Trustees. Garibaldi, the first lay president of the 5,600-student, Jesuit university, also has served as president of Gannon University. A native of New Orleans, he received his doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Minnesota. He will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from St. Thomas.
The ceremony for St. Thomas undergraduates will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 19, outdoors in O’Shaughnessy Stadium. The speaker also will be Garibaldi. Rain site is the field house of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex.
Richard Davis
The ceremony for graduate-level business students will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 19, in the field house of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex. Speaking will be Richard Davis, chair, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, the nation’s fifth-largest commercial bank. Davis began his career as a bank teller at age 18 and became Bancorp’s CEO in 2006. He was named “2010 Executive of the Year” by the Twin Cities Business Journal and serves on the boards of many philanthropic and professional organizations. He will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from St. Thomas.
The annual commencement Mass will be celebrated at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 18, at the Cathedral of St. Paul.
