The spotlight is shining on Rutgers University this week but not for basketball or academics. Instead, the Ivy League school is making headlines because of a decision they made to pay more money to Nicole Polizzi to come speak to students than to their upcoming commencement speaker Toni Morrison.
Most of us recognize the name of Toni Morrison because she is the Pulitzer Prize winning author with a number of best selling books to her credit. Nicole Polizzi is a name most won’t recognize—-that is, until you associate it with “Snooki” from the reality show Jersey Shore on MTV.
This week, the University reportedly paid Snooki $32,000 to speak to a crowd of about a thousand—which is $2000 more than they have agreed to pay Ms. Morrison for her commencement address in May.
Rutgers is now forced to defend it’s position to spend that kind of money on someone who was a nobody before Jersey Shore hit the airwaves. But it appears the best defense is coming from many of the students who seem to feel the University did the right thing by bringing in someone who is popular with them.
So what does that say about our academic culture these days?
To read more about this controversial story, click here: Snooki attends Rutgers
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Strange as this sounds, I have no problem with any of it. I’ve always said that people are worth what someone else will pay them, and the university was acquiescing to the wishes of its students. Probably if I were 20 years old or so I’d have more in common with Snooki and thus would want to see her more than Morrison.
Mitch Mitchell recently posted..Are You Waiting For Someone Else To Make You A Success
I heard about this earlier today. I’m speachless.
Karen O’Bannon recently posted..Keep It Moving