It is not everyday that four feet and nine inches of fake-tan and poof can cause uproar among a university of 29,095 undergraduate students.
On April 1st, MTV’s Jersey Shore star, Snooki was paid $32,000 to appear at two Q&A sessions on Rutgers University’s campus, exceeding the amount paid for Nobel-prize winning author, Toni Morrison to speak at the University’s commencement in May.
Though both Q&A sessions were sold out, Snooki’s appearance left thousands of the other students who did not attend the event, questioning the rationale behind Rutgers University Programming Association’s (RUPA) decision to invite her to campus and more importantly, what this means for humanity today.
“I don’t think the University should have spent $32,000 on someone like Snooki,” Becca Cardenas, School of Arts and Sciences sophomore said. “Plus, I find it really ironic that they [the University] would invite someone to promote drinking- as she suggested that we ‘study hard, but party harder.’”
Similar dissatisfaction with the guest was expressed by Mason Gross School of the Arts sophomore, Dana Majana. “It seemed as if they [RUPA] did not speculate what type of material she was going to be speaking about,” she said.
According to RUPA, nearly 2,000 students expressed an interest in attending the event. However, Felise Ortiz suggests that RUPA needs to provide a more accurate way of polling student opinions when choosing to invite guests on campus, before they decide to use school funding for student programming.
“Personally, Snooki is not my idea of entertainment or comedy and definitely not worth more than the price of a student’s tuition,” the School of Arts and Sciences freshman said. “If Snooki is what the majority of students want to see then okay, but from the backlash I have heard from students and parents, I don’t think Snooki was the best choice.”
A range of guests, including televison and political commentator Rachel Maddow, musical group 3OH!3, and artists Pitbull and Yelawolf are expected to visit campus next week- hopefully to appeal to the diversity of Rutgers’ students’ tastes better than the pint-size party girl did.