Bellarmine University will award 71 master’s and 276 bachelor's degrees during its 53rd annual commencement exercises on Saturday, May 13. The commencement speaker will be Ina Bond, chairperson of the Muhammad Ali Center. Ceremonies will begin at noon in Knights Hall.
Bond was co-chair of Bellarmine’s Partnership for Progress Capital Campaign, and is a former member of the Bellarmine Board of Trustees. Currently, she is serving on the boards of Brown Forman Corporation, the J. Graham Brown Foundation, the Waterfront Development Corporation, and is president of the W.L. Lyons Brown Foundation.
In addition to the conferral of the traditional degrees, honorary doctorates will be awarded to Bond and Nolen Allen, chairman of Cotton and Allen accounting firm. A third honorary doctorate will be awarded posthumously to Joseph Stopher in a private ceremony with his family. Stopher, former president of the Gheens Foundation, died Friday, April 28.
Other highlights of the commencement exercises will be awarding the Archbishop's Medal of Scholastic Excellence, the Wilson W. Wyatt Fellowships and the In Veritatis Amore award. The Archbishop's Medal is awarded to the graduate having the highest cumulative grade point average; the Wyatt Fellowship is presented to a student who has accomplished a high academic standing, is an outstanding student leader, and has completed a competitive interview and nomination process. The In Veritatis Amore award is named after Bellarmine University’s Latin motto, which translated means in love of truth, and it is given to the best all around male and female.