President Bush will be the commencement speaker at St. Vincent College in Latrobe on May 11, school officials announced yesterday after receiving word from the White House.

	Robin Rombach photos, Post-Gazette Audio: St. Vincent President James Towey, left, shown here with Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, announces that President Bush has agreed to visit the school. Click arrow icon to launch audio and additional pictures.

St. Vincent Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, who sent the invitation to the president for the college's 161st commencement, made the announcement at a news conference Downtown.

Also present was college President H. James Towey, who was installed July 1. He had previously served as assistant to Mr. Bush and director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the White House.

"I'm deeply grateful for President Bush's acceptance of this honor that's being conferred on our college," Mr. Towey said.

Not everyone at the college was as enthusiastic. A group of students yesterday circulated an open letter to Mr. Bush, urging him to decline the invitation.

Mr. Towey said he has stayed in touch with the president since leaving his Cabinet position, but said he didn't think the appearance by Mr. Bush would be possible, based on the hundreds of requests he receives each year.

"If my having worked there helped boost [the invitation] along, I think it's great," Mr. Towey said.

He attributed the president's acceptance to a combination of factors, including initiatives by St. Vincent in the last year, among them increasing applications by 37 percent.

There are other personal connections, Mr. Towey said.

Mr. Bush has known the college's board chairman, J. Christopher Donahue, and his family for "some time," and Archabbot Nowicki has met Mr. Bush on several occasions, including a Knights of Columbus convention in Dallas and the Steelers' visit to the White House, where he gave the benediction.

"What I see is a convergence of the stars here that led to a successful invitation," Mr. Towey said.

This was the first formal request St. Vincent had extended to President Bush, and the address will be the first time a sitting president has spoken at the college. When Fred Rogers celebrated his 25th anniversary at St. Vincent, President Jimmy Carter and his wife were invited but could not accept the invitation.

No former president has spoken there, although John F. Kennedy spoke at St. Vincent in 1958, prior to his presidency.

"It is really overwhelming when I think that my graduation will be the one that will go down in history as the year the president came," said senior Kimberly Stevens.

Some students and alumni have raised concerns about the invitation.

The open letter to Mr. Bush drafted by opponents to his visit said St. Vincent's "mission is firmly rooted in 'the love of values inherent in the liberal approach to life and learning.' We believe your administration's disregard of opposing viewpoints has deeply divided the nation and flies in the face of this approach."

"Your poor stewardship of the environment, policies that favor the wealthy while ignoring the needs of the poor and the sick, and reckless squandering of the lives of our troops by clinging to failed tactics in an ill-conceived, unjustified war are at odds with our values," the group wrote.

St. Vincent is in the district represented by U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, who has helped lead opposition to the president's war strategy in Iraq.

"We're all trusting in Archabbot Douglas that this is the right decision," said Steven Leuschel, a junior and president of the student government association, who has heard dissenting opinions from students.

Mr. Towey will meet with seniors tonight to discuss graduation and assure that the president's speech will "not overshadow commencement, it will enhance it."

The college will form a committee to deal with such issues as increasing security and will host a town hall meeting April 17 to give students the chance to voice their opinions about the president's speech.

"We hope this will continue to be an ongoing dialogue," Mr. Towey said.

Don Orlando, St. Vincent public relations director, said school officials were not considering any other commencement speaker and had waited for a White House response before asking anyone else.

In addition to St. Vincent, Mr. Bush will speak this year at commencement ceremonies at the Kendall Campus of Miami Dade College in Miami, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

Mr. Bush has given the commencement address at 16 institutions of higher education, including seven military academies. This will be his first address in Pennsylvania and his second at a Catholic college. He previously spoke at the University of Notre Dame.