Over 2,100 graduates receive degrees as Xavier Community celebrates Commencement

May 14, 2022

More than 2,100 students celebrated their graduation Saturday at the Cintas Center during Xavier University’s 184th Commencement Ceremonies.

Xavier conferred 1,418 undergraduate degrees, 691 master’s degrees, 42 doctoral degrees and 18 associate degrees across the University’s undergraduate and graduate ceremonies.
Graduate Micah Lane Kaaiai shakes Xavier President Colleen Hanycz's hand on stage in Cintas Center Arena.
This year marked Xavier’s first Commencement under the leadership of President Colleen Hanycz, PhD, the first woman and layperson to hold the title in Xavier's history.

"I can think of no better way to stand together, in community, confident that the bonds we share with one another cannot be broken,” President Hanycz said while addressing the Class of 2022. “As you celebrate your many accomplishments, I hope you will take a minute to recognize all that you have triumphed over in order to get here, especially over the past two years.”

During her remarks, President Hanycz highlighted graduating senior Zach Kane and his role with ripple, a company that sells high-quality water bottles and uses the revenue to build water wells in communities that lack access to clean drinking water.

As a parting gift, undergraduates received Xavier-branded ripple water bottles, each marked with the name and coordinates of a community that will benefit from the construction of a new well. Hanycz thanked Xavier Trustee Timothy Schroeder and his company, Covington, Kentucky-based CTI, for purchasing the bottles and supporting the company’s mission.

Mark A. Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Justice, gave the Commencement address to undergraduates. After receiving his honorary degree, Godsey detailed OIP’s work overturning wrongful convictions in Ohio and related it to the moral dilemmas graduates will encounter in their professional lives.

"[No matter what your job is,] remember to be true to yourself and to your brothers and sisters in this world, rather than an employer and the power your position gives you over human beings,” Godsey said during his address. “Stay true to the Jesuit principles you have come to know so well.”

The graduate ceremony speaker, the Rev. Thomas Firestone, serves as the lead pastor for the Catholic Community of Flint, formed in 2015 by merging Flint’s five remaining parishes amid the city’s water crisis. Firestone, who began his education at Xavier in 1970, also received an honorary degree and shared his story about Flint and his message about the importance of relationships and community.

“My mother was right [when she once said] Catholic education can make a difference," Firestone said. "I’m asking you to do that. You have the knowledge; you have the gift of Jesuit education. This is a great day for you. Now, there are people out there waiting for you.”

Today’s graduates join a network of more than 80,000 Xavier alumni from across the globe.

Xavier University is a private university located in Cincinnati, Ohio, providing a liberal arts education in the Jesuit Catholic tradition. Founded in 1831, the University is the sixth-oldest Catholic university in the nation. It has been ranked among the top 10 master's-level universities in the Midwest by U.S. News & World Report for the past two decades. The Princeton Review names it one of the "Best 387 Colleges in America." Follow Xavier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.