UChicago’s 2023 Convocation celebrations to begin June 2

The University of Chicago community and its graduating students will celebrate Convocation this weekend, with a series of events across campus honoring the Class of 2023.

The University-wide ceremony will begin at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, June 3 with a procession of graduating students into the Main Quadrangles. During the traditional “calling together” of the UChicago community, President Paul Alivisatos will confer degrees to candidates who have completed their courses of study and provide remarks.

This year’s Convocation faculty speaker is Prof. Tom Ginsburg. The Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law and Professor in the Department of Political Science, Ginsburg is also the inaugural faculty director of the future University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression. Ginsburg’s research on comparative and international law has a particular focus on how democracies and constitutions function and flourish.

On Friday, June 2, the College will celebrate the accomplishments of graduating students with Class Day. Beginning at 2 p.m., the ceremony will include remarks from graduating students Daphne de Beistegui, Ricky Holder and Jeremy Huang and this year’s invited speaker, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens, AB’95.

The University’s graduate divisions and schools also will hold diploma and hooding ceremonies throughout the weekend.

For those unable to attend, the Class Day and Convocation ceremonies will be webcast on the UChicago News website. For more information, and a full schedule of diploma and hooding ceremonies, visit the Convocation website.

Members of the University community, along with their family and friends, are invited to share photos, memories and congratulatory messages on UChicago social media channels using #uchicago2023.

UChicago honors

During the main Convocation ceremony on June 3, the University will award honorary degrees to five distinguished scholars: Arup K. Chakraborty, a scientist and engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; James P. Comer, a child psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine; Hélène Esnault, a mathematician at the Freie Universität Berlin; Callum Roberts, a scholar of marine conservation at the University of Exeter; and James A. Wells, a pharmaceutical scientist at the University of California, San Francisco.

The University also will honor former Board of Trustees Chair Joseph Neubauer and former Chancellor and President Robert J. Zimmer for their leadership and service to the University.

The University also will recognize faculty members for excellence in teaching with presentations of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring.

Event logistics

Information about the weekend’s events can be found on the Convocation website. Parking restrictions and road closures will be in place throughout Hyde Park from June 2-4. On June 3, CTA bus routes 171 and 172 will be rerouted in the morning and suspended from noon to 5 p.m. Convocation shuttles can be tracked at the UChicago TransLoc website.

Tickets are not required for the main ceremonies, although they may be required for individual division and school ceremonies. General seating for Convocation will open at 7 a.m. and is available on a first-come basis.

Please note that all bags are subject to inspection before entering the Main Quadrangles. Items that may disrupt other guests from seeing or hearing the ceremony are not permitted inside the Quadrangles.