Of that total, 1,466 candidates will receive undergraduate degrees, said Ann S. Reaves, assistant director for graduation in the MTSU Records Office. Two hundred eighty-four students will receive graduate degrees including 213 master’s degrees, 12 education-specialist degrees and five Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Two of the Ph.D. degrees will be posthumous awards.

The morning ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. in Murphy Center on the MTSU campus, with J. Stanley Rogers (B.S. ’61), senior partner with the Rogers & Duncan law firm in Manchester, Tenn., delivering the commencement address.

Rogers received his Bachelor of Science degree from MTSU and a Juris Doctor degree from Vanderbilt University. He is admitted to practice law before the U.S. District Court, Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Tennessee; U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit; U.S. Claims Court; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served as a member of the Lawyers Involved for Tennessee, the Tennessee Appellate Court Nominating Commission, the Tennessee Judicial Evaluation Commission and the U.S. Circuit Judge Nominating Commission, Sixth Circuit.

Rogers served for six years in the Tennessee House of Representatives and was majority leader during the 88th and 89th general assemblies. He recently retired from the Tennessee Board of Regents after serving since 1994. Rogers and his wife, Pat, have three children.

The morning commencement ceremony will honor graduates in the College of Graduate Studies, Jennings A. Jones College of Business, College of Education and College of Mass Communication.

The afternoon ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. in Murphy Center with State Sen. Randy McNally, R-5th District, addressing the graduates.

McNally is a graduate of Oak Ridge High School and received his Bachelor of Science degree from Memphis State University. He attended the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy and held the position of hospital pharmacist from 1978 to 2010 at Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge.

McNally has served in both the Senate (95th-106th general assemblies) and House (91st—94th) of the Tennessee Legislature. He has chaired the Finance, Ways and Means Committee and the Education Committee and also assumed leadership roles on the Council on Pensions and Insurance, the Education Oversight Committee, the TennCare Oversight Committee and the Governor’s Methamphetamine Task Force.

The afternoon ceremony will celebrate graduates from the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and the University College.

Graduation information—including maps and driving directions to Murphy Center, instructions on watching the ceremonies via streaming video on commencement day, cap-and-gown information and how to order a DVD of the ceremonies— is available online at www.mtsunews.com and clicking on the “Graduation Info” link.