Presidential Commencement Addresses (Updated 5/14/2024)

President Biden is scheduled (thus far) to give one commencement address in 2024--at Morehouse College in Atlanta (May 19). This will be the second time a president has spoken at a Morehouse graduation. 

Starting with Eisenhower, every president has made at least one commencement address in the first year of their presidency.  Most gave only one or two addresses, but George H. W. Bush set the record by making six addresses in 1989.  LBJ was runner-up with 5 in 1965. 

Since 1948, incumbent presidents have always given at least one commencement address during the presidential election year except for 1972 (Nixon) and 1980 (Carter).

The earliest instance of a commencement address in our database is Theodore Roosevelt 1902 address at the Naval Academy—the most frequent commencement destination. The military academies account for 30% of presidential commencement addresses.

Occasionally, commencement addresses have involved an extended articulation of important new policy position (see below) but that is relatively rare.  Commonly, Presidents state their position on prominent contemporary issues. Almost always, they provide an opportunity for Presidents to extol shared American values and international commitments. 

The speeches are surely undertaken with an eye to the audience--but also to geographical proximity to Washington D.C.  There have been slightly more commencement addresses at private institutions (51%) than public.  Less than five percent have been to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (6 times at Howard).  Eleven percent have been at institutions with religious affiliations (6 times at Notre Dame) and about eleven percent to secondary schools or community colleges. Presidents have rarely given commencement addresses at the most elite private institutions—none at Harvard or Stanford, three at Yale, two at Princeton and one at MIT (according to APP documents).

Substantively important commencement addresses include these: 

Lyndon Johnson, University of Michigan, May 22, 1964  (Great Society)

Lyndon Johnson, Howard University June 4 1965 (Civil rights)

George W. Bush, US Military Academy, June 1, 2002 (Preemptive war)