Snooki Receives More Money than Toni Morrison to Speak at Rutgers

Snooki Receives More Money than Toni Morrison to Speak at Rutgers

Celebrity News

By our guest blogger, Joe Oliveto

While all of us in the entertainment blogging world like to joke that the success of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” must certainly mark the ultimate downfall of human civilization, few of us really have much reason to believe such hyperbole.

Until now, that is.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi was recently paid $32,000 to speak to students at Rutgers University. In comparison, Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer Prize winning author who doesn’t make a get drunk on TV four our, um, “entertainment,” is being paid $30,000 to deliver the commencement address. (Then again, maybe you'd just like to compare what you make in a year to what Snooki made in a couple of hours.)

We’re struggling to make sense of it, as we’re sure you are.

Sure, not all guest speakers have to offer an educational experience to college students; oftentimes, universities book comedians or bands who offer little in the way of academic value but much in the way of entertainment.

However, most reports indicate that Snooki wasn’t even able to fulfill that role. Students who attended her little pep talk reported that they were fairly disappointed with the experience and felt that it was a waste of their money.

Honestly, paying Snooki to speak to people who are supposed to be attending an institution of higher learning seems like a waste of everyone’s money. Her “party and make bad decisions” lifestyle may mimic the way pop culture depicts college life on film, but we hope that in the end, people are still attending school to study and perhaps prepare themselves for a career that will allow them to contribute to the world in a positive way.

We can’t say that Snooki has achieved what these students ought to be aiming for.

Oh well, those of them graduating this year have Toni Morrison to look forward to. We’re willing to bet that she’ll offer up a speech that is more insightful, articulate, and lucid than anything Snooki could hope to deliver.