The 2018 commencement speaker at St. Michael’s College on May 13 at 10 a.m. in the Ross Sports Center will be New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, whose leadership in the removal of Confederate monuments last year led to his powerful and nationally acclaimed speech about the matter a year ago. Landrieu learned recently that he will be honored for those efforts with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award later in May.

Also receiving honorary degrees at commencement in this 175th anniversary year of the Society of St. Edmund (St. Michael’s College’s founding religious order), will be Edmundite Father Joseph McLaughlin, a former St. Michael’s trustee and professor who also was Edmundite superior general from 1986 to 1991; and Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University since 1989 and a dedicated champion for educating low-income black, Latino and immigrant Washington women.

“The college is pleased to have three honorary degree recipients who reflect the Edmundite commitment to a fair and just society for all, rooted in service to others and faith,” said St. Michael’s President John J. Neuhauser, articulating a commencement theme that connects the degree recipients. “One honoree, a son of Charlestown and an Edmundite and longtime teacher at the college who led the Edmundites during a period of change and consolidation; another a devoted college leader who turned a college of privilege to an amazing conduit whose mission is to provide lives of fulfillment for a disenfranchised, neglected population in Washington, D.C.; and a mayor with long, deep roots in the South who spoke eloquently and bravely of the need to say the truth about our country’s past. All three embody the Edmundite spirit of humble service to others and they each make this college proud to name them graduates.”