Xavier University of Louisiana will honor its Spring 2020 graduates with a virtual graduation ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23, via https://www.xula.edu/other/watchlive
Dean P. Baquet, New Orleans native and executive editor for the New York Times, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. Baquet will virtually address 547 undergraduate, graduate, and pre-professional students and their families.
Other scheduled commencement-related events include the College of Arts and Sciences Doctoral Hooding and Graduate Honors Ceremony at 6 p.m. today Thursday, May 21; the College of Pharmacy Hooding and Honors Ceremony at noon Friday, May 22 and the Baccalaureate Mass and Honors Awards Convocation at 5 p.m. Friday, May 22. All of Xavier’s commencement related events can be viewed here.
Commencement, which is normally a ticketed event, will be celebrated virtually due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s recommended social distancing guidelines. The public is encouraged to participate virtually as Xavier honors the graduating class of 2020.
Baquet has been the executive editor of The New York Times since May 2014. He between 2011 and 2014, Baquet was managing editor. He is the first black American to serve as executive editor.
A former reporter for The Times-Picayune, he is the son of well-known New Orleans restaurateur Edward Baquet. He graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1974 and studied English at Columbia University
