<p>When I heard this headline early this morning on the radio, I thought I must have been half asleep and heard wrong.</p>
<p>But apparently it’s true. If you google Snooki and Rutgers, you get the Reuter’s article. Apparently she got paid more than a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author who will be speaking at commencement! </p>
<p>I’m no prude or “Footloose”-type parent. I love “Southpark” and I sometimes even watch the show with the Kardashians. </p>
<p>But I gotta say, I’m glad I’m not about to submit a tuition deposit to Rutgers.</p>
<p>Her payment came from student entertainment funds which are controlled by the students. I guess they could have brought in some pretty good band for that money.</p>
<p>Good point that her fee was paid for by the students. In that case, there isn’t much to say. I don’t think of myself as a prude either but that show really annoys me. Well, it might be because I was like that at that age and I turned out okay so I probably should leave it alone. </p>
<p>Sadly I don’t think this is an April Fool’s Day joke – apparently this is what RU students consider a “top quality” speaker. They lined up for hours in advance to gain admittance. Explains why many top HS students in NJ leave the state and then refuse to admit they are form NJ.</p>
<p>During our visit to Wake Forest, our tour guide said she was scheduled to come speak there as well. What does she talk about? I’ve never seen the show, but obviously know who she is. </p>
<p>Well, between the Sopranos, the NJ based bigtime bands, Jersey Shore and several other Jersey ID’d shows, the state has an identity many are pretty comfortable with that is better than the smell near Secaucus and the Turnpike. I see lots more NJ pride than there ever was in the past. And there is an attitude that crosses most income, ethnic and gender lines.</p>
<p>and did you know that Jersey girls don’t pump gas! (take that everyone, except Oregon!) </p>
<p>(I wasn’t born here, but I have lived over half my life here and it is an attitude, a way of life that I have embraced. If you don’t it, that’s your problem!!)</p>
<p>My H and I have been laughing all day about this. A bodatious girl with bad hair, bad clothes, bad makeup who enjoys public intoxication…on April Fools Day…perfect…only in America. You go girl.</p>
<p>Well, at least they did not choose her to be the convocation speaker.
[quote]
some parting advice for her audience of University students.
“Study hard,” she said. “But party harder.”<a href=“from%20the%20student%20newspaper%20article”>/quote</a></p>
<p>I like to think I have a New Jersey attitude, but Snooki has nothing to do with it…she’s not even from NJ, for one thing.</p>
<p>People, even Jerseyans, who think NJ is all Sopranos, Real Housewives, and Jersey Shore, only know one tiny slice of New Jersey–much to their loss.</p>
<p>By the way, Snooki has also been paid to speak at James Madison, Wake Forest, and SUNY Binghamton prior to her appearance at Rutgers. Who knows where she’ll be next?</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t see what the big deal is. The funds were from student activities, which pays for bands, comedians, etc. that are popular with students. It’s not as if the academic branch of the university that paid for the commencement speaker or big name lecturers paid for her also. She’s an entertainer and appeared with another comedian. She commanded the fee she can negotiate. Maybe she’s not as dumb as she seems.</p>
<p>Lots of band members (though not all) get drunk/arrested/in fights/etc, but none of them are chosen/paid to entertain *just *on that basis. They gotta actuallly perform something. That this is the “performance” that the students want to see depresses me.</p>
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