As part of commencement ceremonies this weekend, Columbia College Chicago is awarding an honorary degree to longtime Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.

Jones will be conferred the degree at a ceremony 10 a.m. Saturday. He’ll then address Columbia College graduates and their families, speaking again at 3 p.m. Both commencement ceremonies will be held at the Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place Convention Center (2301 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive). The private arts college with a campus in the South Loop is presenting degrees to some 1,400 undergraduate and graduate students this weekend.

Jones is being awarded the honorary degree along with Chicago jazz artist Bobbi Wilsyn, a former Columbia faculty member. Wilsyn will speak at two ceremonies Sunday.

“It means an enormous amount to receive this honor,” Jones said in a statement to the Columbia Chronicle, “not least because Columbia is such an extraordinary place when it comes to culture and the arts. I’m just very moved that the college thought of me, and I am really looking forward to addressing the graduates. My whole life’s work has been in Chicago and this is a school that is linked at the hip to our great, vibrant, artistic city. It’s just wonderful.”

Jones has been a theater critic for the Tribune since 2002. Since 2021, he has also been the Tribune’s editorial page editor. He is the author of two books, including “Bigger, Brighter, Louder: 150 Years of Chicago Theater” (University of Chicago Press, 2013) and “Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from ‘Angels in America’ to ‘Hamilton’” (Bloomsbury, 2018).