President Barack Obama is to give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame’s graduation ceremony this May.

The president will also be awarded an honorary doctorate at the commencement.
 
He will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University and the sixth to be the commencement speaker.
 
Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state of Indiana since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. A considerable portion of Obama’s votes in Indiana came from St. Joseph County, where Notre Dame is located.
 
Notre Dame is in South Bend, an Indiana city beside Elkhart, the city that was Obama's first stop outside the Washington area after his inauguration. The president visited Elkhart in February to promote the economic stimulus plan that Congress later approved.
 
The University will confer degrees on approximately 2,000 undergraduates, 420 MBA students and 200 Notre Dame Law School students this May.