Al Gore to deliver commencement speech at UC San Diego graduation

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will be serving as this year’s commencement speaker at University of California San Diego’s all campus graduation ceremony, campus officials announced on Thursday.

“Vice President Gore has long been committed to raising global awareness around and helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change — a commitment UC San Diego shares — and we are honored to feature him as our Commencement keynote speaker,” Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in a statement.

Gore was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. The Democrat served in the lower chamber through 1984, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate to represent Tennessee. In 1993, he was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States under President Bill Clinton.

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After his vice presidential term ended in 2001, Gore remained a prominent environmental activist — efforts that earned him the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was also awarded the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s inaugural Roger Revelle Prize in a 2009 visit to UCSD.

“Our founder, oceanographer Roger Revelle, whose pioneering research on climate change planted the seeds of activism in Mr. Gore, also formed the foundation for our decades of work in understanding the effects of and finding solutions for climate change as a top-tier research university committed to the greater good,” Khosla said.

The 2024 All Campus graduation ceremony will be held this year on Saturday, June 15 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at RIMAC Field. The ceremony will be livestreamed for graduates or their families who are unable to join in person, UCSD officials say. The livestream will be available beginning at 6:15 p.m. on UCSD’s Commencement website.

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