About 863 degree candidates are expected to graduate during MTSU’s 101st Summer Commencement ceremony, according to a report from Cathy Kirchner of the University’s Registrar’s Office.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, in Murphy Center. Of the 863 set to graduate during the event, 591 are undergraduates and 272 are graduate students, including 237 master’s candidates, 28 education-specialist recipients and five doctoral candidates. Two graduate students also will be receiving graduate certificates.

Dr. Warner Cribb, the 2010-11 president of the MTSU Faculty Senate, is the scheduled speaker for the 2011 Summer Commencement ceremony. Cribb joined the University family in 1993 as an assistant professor of geology.

He earned his doctorate in geology from The Ohio State University after receiving his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from George Washington University and Vanderbilt University, respectively. A full professor at MTSU since 2002, Cribb represented the Department of Geosciences as a faculty senator from 2006 to 2009.

Dr. Warner Cribb

A member of numerous state and national science and science-teaching organizations, Cribb teaches multiple levels of earth science, mineralogy, geology and geochemistry courses at MTSU. He also is a member of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the National Earth Science Honorary Society, and has been widely published in his field since 1996.

During his years at MTSU, Cribb has developed and managed the University’s analytical geochemistry labs and acquired National Science Foundation funding for equipment for and construction of x-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer laboratories. He also has served as faculty supervisor of MTSU’s analytical geochemistry labs, which instruct students and faculty on using of XRF and ICPMS and developing sample-preparation techniques and analytical methodologies.

Cribb also is quite proud of the accomplishments of his former students at MTSU, especially the 26 who have gone on to seek advanced degrees in science. Currently, eight of those students are working on their master’s degrees, and another four are in doctoral programs in universities such as Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.

Graduation committee members emphasized that students who participate in commencement will be required to stay for the entire ceremony. The ceremony should last about two hours, so graduation candidates planning celebrations should be aware of this time commitment.

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. Click on the “Graduation Info” link at the upper left of this page.