SLIPPERY ROCK - Slippery Rock University graduate Francis Barnes, who is the state Secretary of Education, will be the speaker when SRU presents more than 1,050 diplomas at commencement ceremonies.

Graduation will be at 11 a.m. May 7 in N. Kerr Thompson Stadium.

SRU will award 30 doctorate degrees in physical therapy, while 137 students receive their master's diplomas. About 900 undergraduate degrees will also be presented.

In addition, 11 Army Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets will be commissioned as second lieutenants.

Tickets are not required for the outdoor ceremony, but graduating students have been issued four tickets if rain forces the ceremony to Morrow Field House.

The spring ceremony, marking the largest graduation in recent memory, will be led by President Robert Smith.

Greetings will be presented by Robert Marcus, a 1961 SRU graduate and chair of the SRU Council of Trustees.

Barnes, who earned his bachelor of science degree in education from SRU in 1971, was named to lead the state's education program in 2004 by Gov. Edward Rendell.

He has his master of education degree and doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

A reception for graduates and guests will follow in the University Union.