Former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker is receiving an honorary doctorate degree from Kansas State University.

The university announced Wednesday that the degree will be awarded May 15 during the Graduate School’s commencement ceremony in Bramlage Coliseum. She’s also delivering the commencement speech.

University president Kirk Schulz says the nearly two decades Kassebaum Baker spent in the Senate are "evidence of her dedication to service and diplomacy." Kassebaum Baker graduated from the University of Kansas in 1954.

Her ties to Kansas State date from 1966 when the Landon Lecture Series on Public Issues was inaugurated as a tribute to her father, former Kansas Gov. Alfred Landon. Her four children are Wildcats and graduated in the 1980s.

Kassebaum Baker lives on her farm in Morris County, Kansas.