PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Brown University is giving honorary degrees to actor John Krasinski and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns during its 251st commencement ceremony.

The Ivy League university’s ceremony is scheduled for Sunday. Krasinski, a Newton, Massachusetts native, graduated from Brown in 2001. He’s also delivering the baccalaureate address to the university’s undergraduate class Saturday.

About 1,700 undergraduate students will receive their diplomas.

Krasinski and Burns are among seven business and community leaders, scholars and artists receiving honorary degrees this year. The other recipients are: Sheryl Brissett Chapman, Jennifer Anne Richeson, David Rubenstein, E. Paul Sorensen and Joan Wernig Sorensen.


Brown President Christina Paxson will preside over the commencement on the college green. It concludes Brown’s three-day commencement and reunion weekend, which was expected to draw 10,000 people to the Providence campus.