Chancellor Robert Jones will serve as this year’s commencement speaker at the annual graduation ceremony in May. Previous commencement speakers include Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, University alum Nick Offerman and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, among others.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to be a part of the Illinois family and truly the most profound experience of my 46 years in higher education,” Jones said in a press release. “I can’t think of a better way to draw my time as chancellor to a close than celebrating our remarkable 2025 graduates as they take what they’ve learned at Illinois and go on to change the world.”
Jones’ career in higher education includes his positions as vice chair of the Association of American Universities Board of Directors, chair of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Board of Directors, chair of the Big Ten Council of Chancellors and Presidents, president of the State University of New York and various roles at the University of Minnesota.
Jones is the 10th chancellor of the University and has served since September 2016. He announced last November that he would step down from the position following the 2024-25 academic year. In February, the Board of Regents shared that he would assume the position of the 34th president of the University of Washington.
As chancellor, Jones oversaw the establishment of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine — the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine. In 2023, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker named Jones co-chair of the Innovate Illinois program, a partnership designed to secure federal funding for the state through legislation.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“To confront the biggest, most complex challenges of our time, we must engage new partners and rethink traditional approaches to research,” Jones said. “These radical collaborations are ambitious, and they are how we imagine an even bigger role for a land-grant university in the 21st century.”
The 2025 commencement ceremony will be held on May 17 in Memorial Stadium. For more information about this year’s ceremony, visit the University website.
