Kermit the Frog will be the University of Maryland’s 2025 commencement speaker, campus officials announced Wednesday.
University President Darryll Pines said the decision honors the 65th graduation anniversary of the fictional amphibian’s late creator Jim Henson, who earned a B.S. in home economics from the College Park campus in 1960.
The evening commencement ceremony will take place May 21 in SECU Stadium, the home field of the Maryland Terrapins men’s football and lacrosse teams.
“I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” Mr. Pines said. “Our pride in Jim Henson knows no bounds, and it is an honor to welcome Kermit the Frog to our campus.”
Mr. Henson created the Muppets — a fictional musical ensemble of puppets that launched a multibillion-dollar franchise of toys, television shows and movies — while participating in the puppetry club as a student at Northwestern High School in neighboring Hyattsville.
He later created the Cookie Monster and Big Bird characters for Sesame Street, a children’s program that debuted on public television in 1969, and founded an entertainment company.
Born in Mississippi, Mr. Henson moved to suburban Maryland as a child and got his first television job as a 17-year-old puppeteer for a children’s show airing on the District’s WTOP-TV — now WUSA-TV — in 1954.
He performed as the iconic green Kermit, the head Muppet, from 1955 until his death from a lung illness in 1990.
According to a university press release, Mr. Henson “invented Kermit by building the original frog puppet out of one of his mother’s coats and a ping-pong ball cut in half.”
Muppeteer Matt Vogel has performed as Kermit since 2017.
“Nothing could make these feet happier than to speak at the University of Maryland,” Kermit the Frog said in Wednesday’s press release. “I just know the class of 2025 is going to leap into the world and make it a better place, so if a few encouraging words from a frog can help, then I’ll be there!”
The choice of a children’s character as keynote speaker comes after dozens of universities moved away last year from inviting politicians to address their graduates, reflecting growing campus polarization over issues such as Israel’s war in Gaza.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, was the university’s 2024 commencement speaker.
Late last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement withdrew from participating in an annual university career fair after the Student Government Association unanimously passed legislation demanding the agency’s exclusion over concerns that Trump administration immigration policies threatened the privacy of undocumented students.
Louis C. Mancuso, SGA communications director, said Wednesday that he welcomed the school’s pivot from politics to puppets.
“Considering the political landscape we’re in right now, if a politician came to speak I think it would be a very divided audience,” Mr. Mancuso, a freshman accounting major, told The Washington Times. “Personally, I think Kermit is a happy medium whose humor everyone can appreciate without ruffling too many feathers.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.