Obama will speak at UC Irvine graduation ceremony

From The Associated Press

IRVINE, Calif. — President Barack Obama will speak at the University of California, Irvine, commencement in June after students and staff delivered thousands of postcards requesting him, officials said Thursday.

President Barack Obama’s commencement address at Morehouse College, 2013. Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Obama is looking forward to delivering the address marking the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the campus by President Lyndon B. Johnson, said Keith Maley, a White House spokesman.

Obama will speak at a unified ceremony for undergraduates, graduate and professional schools on June 14 at Angel Stadium, campus officials said in a statement.

The school invited Obama last year and delivered approximately 10,000 postcards from students, faculty, staff and alumni to the White House earlier this month.

“We are thrilled that the President has accepted our invitation to deliver the keynote address at our commencement exercises this June,” UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake said in the statement.

The barren land that would eventually become the Orange County campus was dedicated by Johnson in June 1964. The school has more than 28,000 students.