Despite word that Harvard will host J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, Northeastern officials were mum last week about who will be selected to speak at the university’s commencement ceremonies in May.

“We are not prepared yet to announce that,” said Kay Onan, special assistant to President Joseph Aoun, in an interview Friday.

Northeastern is scheduled to host its undergraduate and graduate ceremonies May 2, at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively.

In recent years, speakers at the morning ceremony have included Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child initiative; Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of General Electric; and Leon Panetta, who served as chief of staff during the administration of former president Bill Clinton.

Nominations for commencement speaker are solicited by the President’s Office and are vetted by the Commencement Committee and the Board of Trustees, who have the final say on the selection.

In addition to the speaker, the university accepts suggestions for honorary degree candidates, which are also presented at each commencement ceremony.

Onan declined to say whether a speaker had been chosen at this point in the process, adding, “We would like to have the complete slate, to announce it all at once, and we are in the process of putting that together.”

In a departure from the past, the ceremony will be held on a Friday rather than on a Saturday. This year, Saturday is observed as a Jewish holiday, Holocaust Memorial Day, from dusk the night before and into that evening.

“There are probably a number of reasons that could be cited, if you look at when other institutions have their commencements, they occur on all sorts of dates,” Onan said. “Now we’re testing out Fridays, and one of the reasons is to be sensitive to our Jewish community.” Onan said the scheduling overlap “wasn’t overlooked” in the past.

“We had, in fact, talked with many of the Jewish members of our community, and generally speaking, there had been no concerns expressed,” she said.